Iron Mare
by MiAmoreCadenza
Summary: After being kidnapped by a terrorist group known as the Diamond Dogs while on a trip to Saddle Arabia, Rainbow Dash gains a new outlook on her life and sets out to fix the mistakes her company has made.
1. A Fateful Trip

The sun beat down along the sandy dunes of Saddle Arabia. The unforgiving landscape had long been traversed by travelers throughout the centuries, always unchanging and always brutal. From the sand that blew everywhere with the slightest hint of a breeze to the rattlesnakes that inhabited the desert, it was no easy feat to make it through the barren wasteland.

Over the horizon, the sun climbed higher into the air, casting an orange glow that chased the dark of the night away in order begin the day anew. Shadows elongated themselves along the ground as they stretched to greet the new day. All was still in the desert landscape, not a grain of sand moved and not a breeze was felt.

However, just over a tall hill of sand, one could make out a cloud of dust rising into the air and moving forward. On the other side of the hill, four motorized carriages made their way through the desert. Inside each were a group of ponies of all kinds wearing gold plated armor and carrying weapons. These were the Royal Guards, the strongest and best trained military force in Equestria. Though their name implied that they should be guarding a fair princess in a castle in some far off land, they were in fact, soldiers, meant to defend Equestria whatever the cost. Highly trained and heavily armed, they would stand up to any foe who threatened the safety of their home.

In all of the carriages, they sat talking among each other, laughing with each other and talking amongst themselves. There they chatted, merely enjoying the company of their brothers in arms. Many had grown close to one another over the past few years they had spent in the desert together during their service and had been through some of the most grotesque events in their lives together.

One carriage in particular, however, was especially alive with activity, electric guitar music blared from the speakers inside as a Rainbow maned pegasus sat with a pair of stallions on either side of her. Had it not been for the music, the carriage would have been utterly silent, not even the soft laughter of two normally wisecracking young privates was able to break the silence in that carriage. It was then that the cyan pegasus opened her mouth to talk.

"Oh come on you guys. I feel like you're taking me to a court-martial or something. This is crazy! What did I do wrong this time? Any minute now, you're probably gonna pull over and shoot me! I mean, come on! What, are you not allowed

to talk or something?"

One of the stallions swallowed nervously.

"We-we can talk, ma'am. Its just that-"

"Oh, I see how it is. It's personal, huh?" said the pegasus, playfully feigning offense at the guard's remark.

"You intimidate them. They're not sure how to react to someone being bigger and badder than them," she heard a feminine voice say from the seat in front of her.

Rainbow Dash smiled a bit upon hearing the mare's voice front of her. Just then, she saw the stallion on her right slowly raise his left hoof into the air. Dash turned to look at him.

"You're- you're kidding me with the hoof raising, right?" She asked. "Come on, just speak up! I don't bite... often". She playfully flashed her white teeth at him in an animalistic manner before giving him a warm smile.

For a moment, she thought the young stallion (who may as well be a colt) would wet himself any second by the look on his face. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes a bit and wrapped one of her wings around him, pulling him close and keeping the same smile on her face.

"Come on," she said to him. "What is it?"

He merely stared at her, wearing a blank expression for half a second before he suddenly remembered that he was in the real world.

"Um... Miss Dash... I know you probably get this way too much, but I was wondering if you um... might take a picture with me? I mean... 'cause.. my friends at home will never believe me if I say-"

"Is that it? Jeez, with the way you were acting I was expecting you to get on your knees and propose to me right here!" said Rainbow, cutting him off. "Sure. Why not?"

Turning his head around, the guard reached into his saddlebag and pulled a small camera out with his mouth, giving it to the mare in front of him with a nervous grin. As she took it and began to fiddle with it, he leaned in next to Rainbow Dash and put on smile. Rainbow in turn put on a face that she thought would look... cooler to everyone. She didn't smile, but her face didn't show signs of unhappiness or anger; she just looked very calm and... cool.

The camera clicked and the inside of the carriage filled with a bright light for no longer than the blink of an eye. The guard reached his hoof out and took the camera back from his female comrade, thanking her.

"Now, just remember, kid," Rainbow Dash said, "if you have something to say, just say it. Don't wait for someone to call on you like a little schoolcolt in the first grade."

The white stallion opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, the windows were filled with a blinding flash of light as they felt their carriage suddenly come to a halt. The driver slammed his hoof on the brakes and made a sharp turn that nearly flipped the entire vehicle. When they came to a stop, the side window was now facing ahead. Looking out, Rainbow could see that the carriage in front of them, once made up of fine iron, was now nothing but a smoldering mass of molten metal and flames.

"Contact! We have enemy contact!" the mare in front of them screamed out as she grabbed her gun and attached it to the side of her armor.

Checking to make sure it was secured and that the ammo belt in her saddlebag was properly linked in, she leaped out of the carriage and opened fire into the distance. The surviving soldiers in the convoy followed suit as they filed out of their transports one by one and opened fire. The second stallion on Rainbow's left opened the door and scrambled out, taking his gun with him.

"You! Stay with Miss Dash!" he yelled to the remaining soldier in the carriage. Just as he finished his sentence, he was engulfed in flames from a nearby explosion.

Rainbow Dash wasn't looking when the door behind her opened. Her eyes were locked on the explosion that had just taken the life of a young soldier barely into his adult years. When she felt the carriage shake from the closing door, she snapped out of her trance and looked behind her to see that the soldier who was supposed to guard her had directly disobeyed his order and climbed out to help his friend.

"Wait! Wait!" cried Dash, beginning to fear for her life upon hearing the sound of guns firing and grenades detonating just outside. "Give me a gun! Or a knife! Or something!"

"Stay here!" screamed the soldier, attaching his gun to his saddle bag and loading a clip of ammo. "You hear me?! Stay he-"

He was cut off as a barrage of bullets hit him right in the chest, puncturing a few holes in the door he had just closed. His lifeless body leaned against the side of the carriage before sliding down to the ground. Rainbow Dash squeezed her eyes shut as she did her best to collect herself after what she had just witnessed. Opening the door opposite the one covered in bullet holes, she crawled out of the carriage, the sound of guns and explosions filling her ears the second she put her front hooves on the ground. In the distance she heard a loud noise that sounded like a rocket had gone off. Just to her right, she saw the carriage that had been driving behind the one she was in explode. Its wheels flew off in different directions as everyone inside or nearby was instantly incinerated. Before she had time to register that over seven ponies had just been killed, the fourth and final carriage was also hit.

In a haze, Rainbow Dash scrambled through the sand towards a rock that was just large enough to hide and hopefully protect her from any incoming bullets. From her own custom saddlebag, she pulled out a small cellular phone, among the most advanced in existence, and desperately tried to press the buttons with her shaking hooves. As she finally pressed the final button there was a soft thud to her right. Looking away from her device, she saw that a small, glowing, fire red ruby had landed right next to her. What struck her as even more odd about this already unusual projectile was that it seemed to

glow from the inside and... oh no...

Rainbow Dash let out a scream of both surprise and horror when she realized that it wasn't just any ruby that had been designed to explode. On the side, she could faintly make out the words "Dash Industries" engraved onto it's surface. Before she could turn to run, the gem detonated. The force of the explosion sent her flying backward, slamming her down on her wings several feet away.

Rainbow Dash lay unmoving on the sandy floor of the desert; her entire body burned in agony for several seconds before she felt a warmth trickling down her chest and stomach. Pulling her head up with a groan, she found that dozens of small cuts had been slashed into her chest area by shards of the ruby, each progressively releasing more blood as the seconds went by. She let her head fall back down and looked to the sky above her as the blood continued to flow out of her body. She felt her body beginning to shut itself down as she slowly slipped into the depths of unconsciousness.

* * *

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to find that the sun had been replaced with a glaring lightbulb overhead and that something, although she wasn't sure what, was holding her down and keeping her from moving. Suddenly, she felt an excruciating pain in her chest; she looked down to see several silhouetted figures standing over her and talking to one another, though she couldn't make out what they were saying. Dash opened her mouth and released a scream of pain into the air. She managed to pull one of her hooves out of the restraints and began to flail it around in a hopeless attempt to escape.

Whatever had been holding her down sprang back and wrapped itself around her hoof once again, slamming it back down onto the table she was lying on.

"Noooooooo!" She screamed once again, trying to pull her hoof away.

She struggled seemingly endlessly, her chest on fire, every muscle in her body flailing in an attempt to escape whatever force was keeping her down. She screamed once more before she could see what looked to be a small metallic object being lowered down into her chest, where an incision had been made. The sight of this immediately sent her into a panic, and she began to struggle even more than she already had. Before she could manage to yank herself free once more, a cloth was plastered over her face.

"NO!" She screamed, suddenly feeling very dizzy "Don't do... don't do... don't... do... do... do... it..."

Before she could finish her sentence, her body once again went limp and the entire world around her faded into blackness...

* * *

For the second time in one day, Rainbow Dash pulled herself back from the depths of unconsciousness. The room she was in appeared blurry and there seemed to be an unnatural dark tint to everything. As her senses slowly returned to her, she could feel that something, a common potato sack perhaps, had been cast over her head. She was sitting in an unnatural position on what felt to be a chair, with a rather heavy object in her hooves. Her vision started to clear a bit, allowing her to make out what seemed to be a tripod-mounted camera in front of her.

Rainbow Dash moved her head around in an attempt to try and make sense of her surroundings. She heard a voice overhead seemingly speaking to the camera ahead. The sack was suddenly yanked violently from her head, taking the dark tint it had given to the world with it. Rainbow's eyes widened as her vision finally cleared itself up; upon viewing her surroundings, however, she truly wished she could go blind again. She was strapped to a chair in a room filled with strange bipedal dogs. Each of them, with the exception of the one talking, was carrying a gun of some form or

another. Their gazes were focused on her as the one speaking read aloud from a scroll held in his paws. Rainbow Dash's breathing grew quicker and shallower as she realized the horrible truth.

She had been kidnapped... and she was now a hostage...


	2. 36 Hours Earlier

36 hours earlier...

* * *

"Rainbow Dash. Daughter of the legendary Spectrum Dash, she quickly began to overshadow her father with her breathtaking intelligence and remarkable home inventions. At the ripe young age of four years old, the filly built her first circuit board, a very new technology at the time. At age seven, she invented the first computer-controlled machine known to ponykind. At age sixteen she graduated at the top of her class in the Wonderbolts Academy, shattering all previous records in flight and academic achievement. Finally, at age seventeen she revolutionized modern science with the development of Equestria's first artificial intelligence system.

Then came the end of a legend. Spectrum Dash died when the young mare was 18 years old, leaving the Dash Industries corporation to his very young personal assistant and friend, Lightning Dust. Also a graduate from the Wonderbolts Academy, Lightning Dust had set the all the records that would be broken by Miss Dash nearly a decade later. With the fate of a corporate empire on her shoulders, Lightning Dust set to work at keeping Dash Industries afloat for the next several years.

Then, three years ago, the legend continued as the 24-year-old Rainbow Dash stepped up to claim her father's throne. In the course of three years, Miss Dash has taken her company in an entirely new direction, expanding its assets and paving the way for a new Equestria. Along with the further development of computers and making them accessible to the general public, she also created Equestria's very first working mobile telephone network. Today, Dash Industries remains Equestria's top weapons manufacturer, using technology to make the world a better place every day."

The crowd began to clap and stomp the ground with their hooves as the projected film ended on an image of Rainbow Dash saluting the Equestrian flag. Lightning Dust was among those in the audience, which consisted of ponies from the upper echelons of society as well as fellow scientists. A moment later, a yellow-coated pegasus pony with a fiery orange mane stepped out onto the stage where the film had been shown. Lightning recognized her as the leader of the Wonderbolts and Rainbow Dash's closest friend, Spitfire. The legendary flier trotted up to a podium at the front of the stage before tapping the microphone and clearing her throat.

"Mares and gentlecolts, for the past several years, it has been my honor and privilege to work alongside an incredible pony. She is a great friend and an even more amazing pony. It is my pleasure to present this year's Award for Incredible Service to Equestria to the lovely Miss Rainbow Dash!"

The overhead speakers drummed out a catchy fanfare of trumpets and saxophones while the audience began to applaud. The curtains behind Spitfire pulled away to reveal an empty spot where Rainbow Dash was supposed to be standing. Spitfire looked behind her while holding the small silver statue only to discover that Dash was nowhere to be seen. She laughed nervously as her face began to develop a reddish tint.

"Uh... Rainbow?" she said, turning back to the audience with her face still red. "That's... uh, that's your cue!"

Lightning Dust merely shook her head, watching as Spitfire desperately tried to keep her cool in front of an increasingly suspicious audience. She locked eyes with her before finally standing up from her seat and trotting up to the podium. She reached her hoof out to Spitfire and took the award from her.

"Thanks for the save," Spitfire whispered into her ear. Lightning Dust simply nodded with a smile, turning to face the crowd. She blinked before starting to speak.

"Well... uh... if you can't tell by now... I'm not Rainbow Dash!" She said, trying to lighten the mood. A few ponies in the audience chuckled in response.

"Wow, that is one fancy trophy!" Lightning said as she examined the silver statuette in her hooves. "You know... Rainbow Dash might not have been able to make it here tonight, but I can assure you of one thing. If she were here, she would be delighted and honored to receive this very prestigious award and even more pleased to know that, in obtaining it, she has been able to make the world a better place. If there's one thing I've learned about her in my many years of knowing her, it's that no matter what, she is always working to improve our lives every day.

* * *

The crowd around her was completely silent as Rainbow Dash stared at the cards in her hooves. In front of her sat a grey pegasus pony with a blonde mane and strange crossed eyes. To her right was a white unicorn mare with purple sunglasses and a sapphire blue mane chewing on a piece of gum. None of them said a word as they tried to maintain their unreadable faces in spite of the high stakes.

Finally, the moment that the game had been building up to arrived. The grey pegasus laid down her cards in front of her to reveal three tens. The white unicorn released the cards from her magical grasp and set them on the table, grinning. Glancing at the cards the unicorn had set down, Rainbow saw three Jacks side by side. All eyes in the room turned to look at her, the crowd holding its breath in anticipation. A look of mock disappointment crept onto Rainbow's face as she slowly slid her cards down, revealing the ultimate poker hand: A royal flush!

The crowd exploded into a choir of cheers. Some stomped their hooves while others whistled their enthusiasm. The white unicorn's jaw dropped, letting the gum she had been chewing fall to the table top below, while the grey Pegasus merely fluttered away with a disappointed look.

"Awwwwwwww yeah!" cried Rainbow, shooting her hoof into the air and taking a victory stance.

She reached over and grabbed all the chips from the middle of the table, pulling them toward her and sliding them into her saddlebag. Just then, she felt a hoof on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Spitfire, wearing her trademark tinted shades, glaring at her. Rainbow smiled upon seeing her friend and stood up from the table, taking the winnings with her. She turned to face her Wonderbolt friend and wrapped a wing around her.

"Spitty!" she said. "What brings you to this neck of Las Pegasus?"

Spitfire tilted her head down and looked at Rainbow from over her shades. "You are unbelievable sometimes, you know that?"

"Aw jeez, what did I do now?" asked Rainbow with a slight eye roll.

"You told me that if they gave you the award, you would be there to gratefully accept it."

"Well, did I get it?"

"Yes, it's right here," said Spitfire, pulling it from her saddlebag and showing it to her, forcing her to talk with the statue in her mouth. "Bu' thaths not the poin-"

Rainbow used her wing to yank the trophy from Spitfire's mouth and held it in her hooves. "Wow! Look how fancy this thing is! And you know what? I AM very grateful for it, Spitty!"

Spitfire rolled her eyes through her shades, turning away and walking toward the bar on the other side of the room. "Come on Rainbow Dash... I need a drink."

"Uh, actually, I was planning on turning this in right now. I don't wanna end up losing these," Rainbow Dash said as she patted her saddlebag with a wing. "I'll catch up, okay?"

"Whatever you say, Dash." said Spitfire, not turning around or stopping. Rainbow giggled to herself as she walked toward the desk to turn in her chips.

* * *

Not much later, she found herself at the bar sitting next to Spitfire. A blue earth pony stood behind the bar, taking orders and mixing drinks for the various customers. She called him over and asked for a cup of cider, an old favorite of hers. Turning to her friend, she wrapped her front hoof around her and placed it on her shoulder.

"Come on, Spitty, what's got you so down?"

"Oh, nothing at all, Rainbow. I'm totally okay... you know, except for the fact that I had to go up in front of a crowd of ponies to present an award to someone who wasn't even there. Thank Celestia Lightning Dust was there to save my flank," Spitfire sighed.

The earth pony walked back over and placed a mug of fizzy liquid in front of Rainbow Dash. She slid her hoof through the handle on its side and brought it up to her mouth, taking a sip.

"So good ol' Dusty saves the day again, huh?"

"Yeah, but that's not the point. The point is that-"

Spitfire was cut off mid-sentence by a soft voice coming from the side. "Excuse me! Miss Rainbow Dash?"

Both mares looked over to see a green colt, easily two or three years younger than Rainbow Dash, trotting up to them, a pencil nestled behind his ear and some blank papers in his saddlebags.

"I hope it's not a bad time," he said.

Judging by his cutie mark, a simple pencil and paper, his appearance, and his overall presentation of himself, it was easy for Rainbow Dash to deduce that he was a reporter of some sort. A fresh young reporter too, as he sounded like he had just been given his first story assignment this morning and didn't want anything in the world ruining his chance to prove himself. Rainbow turned on her stool and stepped down, leaning against the wooden bar next to her.

"Nah. You're good," she said while looking at Spitfire, who merely glared at her back.

"Oh, thank goodness. I was so nervous that I might be interrupting you two and I didn't want to make a bad impression, especially with this being my first assignment and all. I was watching you play cards earlier and I wasn't sure if it would be okay to-" he started before being interrupted by Rainbow.

"Woah woah woah, there. Slow down and take a few steps back," Dash said as she took another sip from her cider mug. "What assignment?"

"Oh yes! Forgive me, Miss Dash!" he blurted, turning his head and burying his nose into his saddlebag. A second later he pulled out a slip of paper with his mouth. "My name ith Grath 'Arkth with tha Daily Cloud, and I wath athked by my bothh

thith morning to go on my firtht athignment."

Rainbow smiled and took the slip out of his mouth, slightly amused. "What say we try that again, huh? This time WITHOUT the card in your mouth."

The green Pegasus simply gave an embarrassed smile. "My name is Grass Marks with the Daily Cloud. This morning, my boss asked me to go on my very first assignment, which is to interview you, Miss Dash. So I've been trying to get a chance to talk to you and-"

"Calm down, kid. I get it. Let me guess... the colt who was supposed to do this has a cold and he can't make it, so your boss sent you instead?"

"Actually, the other guy broke his wing while reporting on a hurricane in Fillydelphia," the newscolt said, his smile growing a bit.

"Alright, well, let's see what you got. Go ahead, kid."

"I... um... well... yes, Miss Dash. Okay... um.. first question: You've been called the Star-"

"Call me Rainbow."

The young colt paused. "I'm sorry?"

"Call me Rainbow. It sounds so much less formal. After all, we ARE in a casino"

His voice seemed to shake a bit as he continued. "Well, Miss Da- ahem, Rainbow... Some ponies have called you the modern Starswirl the Bearded, and given that you-"

"Absolutely not. I don't even have a horn on my head. We're nothing alike."

The green pegasus held the yellow pencil in his mouth and wrote down her response. He put it down before moving on to his next question.

"What about when ponies call you 'The Mare who lives off Death?'"

Rainbow Dash sipped from her cider before answering. "What a lot of ponies out there don't know is that we make more than weapons. I'm not too proud to say it, but they happen to be the number one thing we're known for. But think for a second: If we didn't make things like the world's first saddle-mounted gun or the Dragon's Breath Mini Bomb Ruby, we wouldn't have any money. This is the money we use to make other things. The bits that come from selling our weapons help us make advances in medicine. It even let us create the only apple tree in the world that is always in bloom, even in the freezing winter. Yeah, we make things that go 'kaboom,' but without them, we can't do other things. You got all that?"

The pegasus struggled to write it all down on his paper. When he finished, over half of the paper had been scribbled on and his pencil was nearly dull.

"Um... yes, Miss Da- I mean, Rainbow. I believe I did," he said, looking over his notes.

"I'm glad, uh... What did you say your name was again?" Rainbow took another drink of cider.

"Grass Marks, ma'am."

"Grass Marks... I'll remember that. Anything else you want to ask me?"

"Not that I can think of at the moment. I asked all the questions I needed."

"Alright. You'll do good, I can tell. And hey, good luck on the job!"

Grass Marks appeared shocked that a celebrity had just wished him, a simple pegasus who was merely filled in for someone else, good luck with his job. He walked away smiling from ear to ear as he put the paper back into his saddlebag.

Rainbow swore she heard him let out a both relieved and star-struck "Sweet Celestia" as he headed out.

"What is it with you and never being able to put down your cider?" Spitfire mumbled next to her.

"What can I say? This mare loves her cider!" With that, she downed the remainder of her drink and set her empty mug on the bar, ordering another round for both of them.

* * *

It was morning when Rainbow awoke in her bed. Her head was throbbing and she couldn't remember a thing from the night before. It wasn't uncommon for her weekends to start off with a slight hangover, but normally she would at least remember where she had been and what she had done the night before. She put a hoof on her head and groaned a bit. Outside, rain came splashing down and the occasional lightning bolt flashed through the air while the thunder struggled to catch up. The sky was a dark shade of grey and she could see that the "ocean" (technically the Quiet Sea) was choppy through her window .

She looked up at the ceiling and called out, "T.A.N.K, what time is it?"

A moment later, a slow but gentle voice responded, "Time is currently 11:56 AM, ma'am."

Rainbow Dash rested her head back on the pillow, shutting her eyes once again. "And when did I get home last night?"

"Time of arrival was 3:30 AM last night."

Rainbow Dash groaned as she tried to go back to sleep in spite of the thunder and rain outside. As if the universe was doing all it could to keep her from falling back to sleep, there was a knock on her bedroom door.

"T.A.N.K.?" Rainbow called out, not opening her eyes or leaving the bed.

"Right away, ma'am," said the robotic voice.

A second later, the wooden door opened on its own, allowing an orange young mare with a purple mane to step through.

"Good morning, Miss Rainbow," she said in a warm and friendly voice.

"Scoots, I swear to Celestia... If this isn't important, I'm going to tie your mane to your tail... or... something... whatever..." Rainbow Dash groaned into the pillow.

"Well, depending on what you call important, I suppose this can count as such. Here." Scootaloo set a glass of water next to Rainbow's bed and plopped in a tablet of antacid.

Rainbow Dash moaned as she turned her body around and reached for the glass, taking a sip. As much as she loved Scootaloo for being such a good assistant, there was nothing she despised more than seeing her in the morning. No matter what time it was, she always seemed to be up and ready for Dash to wake, armed with a cup of coffee and her schedule. As effective as it may have been, it was the last thing Rainbow ever wanted to wake up to.

"Today you have a demonstration for some kind of new weapon, I believe you called it a Rainboomer, with some high ranking officials in Saddle Arabia. Then you have to meet with the Captain of the Royal Guard before you come home."

Though she was very young, just barely making it past the minimum age when she had first been hired, Scootaloo was very hard-working and steadfastly loyal no matter what. Quick to respond to nearly any situation she was presented with and never unprepared for whatever drama the day might bring, Rainbow Dash never doubted she had picked the right mare for the job. In fact, as the years went by, Rainbow had begun to see her as more of a younger sister rather than an employee. She sometimes wondered if Scootaloo thought the same of her.

"Oh don't worry, it's not much. Just visiting another country to show off a piece of amazingly expensive and advanced weaponry, right in the middle of a region at war. No biggie..." Rainbow said sarcastically.

Scootaloo merely smiled at her boss' reaction. "And I suppose you would want something to eat before you head on out?"

"You know me too well, Scoots," grinned Rainbow Dash.

* * *

In theory, a pegasus could fly across the Quiet Sea in approximately 96 hours without stopping. However, the amount of food and water that pegasus would have to carry in order to sustain themselves would only cause them to lose strength faster than they would be able to recover, ultimately leading to a plunge into the unforgiving waters below

Nearly 85 years ago, two pegasi had created a machine that was only able to fly on its own but also, if large enough, was able to carry ponies who lacked wings inside of it! That machine became known as Equestria's first airplane. Over the decades, it had gone through many changes, some improving upon the original design while others simply fell to the wayside. Rainbow Dash had initiated and led the project to create fastest flying machine in Equestria. Drawing on a team composed of the nation's most brilliant minds, Dash Industries designed a plane that would be able to make the journey across the Quiet Sea in a mere three hours. The extraordinary development led to planes overtaking sea travel as the primary method of overseas transportation and also allowed Dash Industries to become the world's first air service, carrying passengers in large commercial airliners for affordable prices. With no competition, the corporation held a monopoly over the skies, flying unicorns and Earth ponies wherever they needed to be within a few short hours.

Many newer and faster variations had come and gone in the years since Dash Industries had changed the face of air travel, but Rainbow Dash never gave up her first design. She never explained why she didn't exchange her first plane for a faster one, but many speculated that she kept it as a reminder of the day she changed history.

That plane was the same one she sat in right now. It wasn't nearly as large as the ones used to carry passengers, but it certainly stood out; Rainbow had made sure of that. With a cyan blue base and rainbow colors streamlining all along it, it was easily visible against the sky. Inside, Rainbow waited silently in a seat next to the window, looking out at the sea below. The water was still choppy and dark from the storm they had flown out of not long ago. The view wasn't very thrilling, just the occasional white puff of sea foam breaking the otherwise dark and still surface.

Rainbow let out a sigh. The sight of a whale breaching now would be enough to make her jump out of her seat and press her face against the window just to catch a glimpse. At least it would be better than the total silence that dominated the interior of the plane. She unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of her chair, trotting across to the other side of the cabin to pick up a magazine. She flipped through it before tossing the print on the ground and letting out a groan in frustration.

"Ugh! I'm sooooooo bored!" she announced to no one in particular.

"Well, get used to it. We've got about another hour to go before we get there," came Spitfire's voice from behind.

"You're kidding, right? It's been, like, six hours now!" Rainbow turned to Spitfire, scrunching her face.

"Just two actually. We still have one more hour to go before we can land. Better sit tight, Rainbow Dash. We've still got a while to travel."

"Sure feels like it's been six..." Rainbow Dash hung her head low in boredom. "Why didn't I bring more Daring Do books?" she muttered.

"What was that?"

"Uh, nothing, just... thinking out loud," Rainbow quickly replied.

"Rainbow Dash, are..." Spitfire snickered a bit. "You're not still reading those children's books are you?"

Rainbow could feel her cheeks burning. "Not at all! I got past that kiddie stuff ages ago!"

Spitfire's mouth began to transition to a sly grin, the kind a filly would make if she was trying to keep a secret but doing an awful job of it. Rainbow stared while Spitfire trotted over to a cabinet in the back of the plane and used her hoof to pull it open. Two thick hardcover books fell out, each depicting a mare wearing an explorer's hat and holding onto a golden statue while swinging from a tree with a crumbling temple in the background.

"Okay, okay... So I have two Daring Do books lying around that I must have forgotten to take out. That doesn't mean I still read them..."

Spitfire's smile only grew as she made her way over to the dufflebag Rainbow had thrown together at the last minute before leaving. She looked back at Rainbow before reaching her head down and using her mouth to pull the zipper. Once she had opened the bag, she reached in with a hoof and pulled out another Daring Do book, showing it to Rainbow.

"Well, uh, that's my, er... lucky book! I've taken it with me everywhere for the past few years..." Rainbow sputtered in an attempt to salvage her dignity.

"Hm, this must really be an incredible book for you to have carried it around all this time. In fact, you must love it so much that I bet you've had it for years before before its official release a week ago!" she smirked. "And perhaps I'm mistaken, but doesn't it look like Daring Do signed it just last week?" Spitfire opened the book to look under the front cover.

She turned the book over, holding it open so Dash could clearly see the written message on the inside. Scribbled in perfect cursive with black ink was a note from Daring Do herself:

"To my biggest and favorite fan in Equestria, Rainbow Dash. Your inventions have saved my neck more times than I can count! Thanks, and good luck! Regards, Daring Do." The message had been dated just the week before.

"Wasn't she in Las Pegasus for the release of this one? Just this Sunday?" Spitfire's smile grew wider and wider. "Still gonna try to save yourself now, Dashie?" she teased, referring to Rainbow with the nickname she had used since they were fillies.

Knowing she was backed into a corner, Rainbow let out a puff of air from her mouth, blowing a stray rainbow-colored hair back into its proper spot in her mane. She turned to glance back out the window when something suddenly struck her. She looked around to see Spitfire sneaking a peek inside the book.

"Hey, wait a minute. How did YOU know Daring was at the release of 'Raiders of the Temple of Doom' a week ago?"

She watched Spitfire's smug grin disappear before the yellow mare began to bite her lip. A small tint of red crept onto her face.

"Well, uh... see... my little, um... cousin loves them and she, uh, wanted me to take him to go meet Daring Do..." she struggled to make up an alibi on the spot. As it turns out, she was an even worse liar than Rainbow Dash.

"You know, Spitty, before you take your cousin anywhere, it's pretty important to know what gender they are..."

Spitfire's face made it clear that she had been caught. Rainbow Dash laughed as she walked over to her friend and put a wing around her.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Daring Do has enough room for two big fans in Las Pegasus."

Spitfire continued to blush before suddenly cracking a smile. A moment later, she found herself laughing at the unusual situation they were currently in. It wasn't long until Rainbow began to smile herself and joined into the peals of laughter with her friend. The two young mares continued to giggle together as the plane sped on through the sky.

* * *

After what felt like forever, the plane finally began its descent and landed smoothly on the runway, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. Rainbow Dash was already standing in front of the cabin door awaiting word from the pilot that it was safe to step outside.

His voice sounded through the speakers on the ceiling: "Miss Dash, we have safely arrived in Saddle Arabia. If you would please-"

Before he was even finished, Rainbow had already pulled the hatch open and flown out of the plane as fast as she possibly could, coming to a stop a short distance away. She simply hovered in the air for a bit, stretching her wings. The sun beat down on her from high in the air while she closed her eyes and stretched out her front hooves as far from her body as they could possibly go. Rainbow Dash let out a satisfied sigh of relief at finally being free from the cramped chambers of the plane. She turned around to see Spitfire talking to a gruff-looking earth pony with a graying mustache on his face.

Letting out a deep sigh, she began to take in her surroundings. It was exactly what anybody would expect to find in a military base: Everyone around her was either doing some kind of training exercise, fixing something, or simply standing alert. Rainbow had never liked visiting military bases; they always made her uncomfortable for some reason. She loved to be free and do what she wanted her own way; she liked to stretch her wings both literally and metaphorically. A military base felt like a complete foil to her personality. There was only one way for ponies to do things, following orders and carrying them out. Not even the pegasi could fly when they wanted to; they weren't allowed to take off without clearance. The rest of the time, they weren't even allowed to move their from the sides of their bodies, much less stretch them. At least she had known Spitfire since they were both fillies, meaning that she rarely acted so-

Her thoughts were cut off as she heard Spitfire's voice behind her. "Rainbow, this is General Silver Shield. He's here to observe your presentation today."

Rainbow Dash turned to look at the mustachioed pony Spitfire had been speaking with moments ago. He extended a hoof out to her, which she shook awkwardly.

"Welcome, Miss Dash. We look forward to what you have to show us today. I hear it's quite the spectacle."

"Well, I guess that depends on what you call a spectacle, I guess," Rainbow said, not daring to meet his eyes for fear that she might somehow anger him.

"I suppose we shall have to wait and see then, yes? If you'll excuse me, I have some forms in my office that need signing. I will see you two at the presentation this afternoon. Good day."

With that, the decorated pony began to trot past them toward what Rainbow assumed was his office. She leaned over to Spitfire. "He's kind of uptight, don't you think?"

The yellow mare leaned back and whispered into her ear, "Just behave yourself. I know how much you hate these places."

Rainbow turned to look at her with a smile. "You know me, Spitty. I'm ALWAYS on my best behavior!" She gave her friend the most innocent face she could manage.

Spitfire just rolled her eyes and put a wing around her before the pair walked off to where she was scheduled to present her invention.

* * *

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat as the group of uniformed ponies quieted down and stood at attention. She took in a deep breath before starting.

"I'm pretty sure you all know who I am. I'm the mare who makes your fancy toys." Some of the ponies in the audience chuckled at the statement. She licked her lips before continuing.

"Those toys keep the bad guys in line and save innocent lives each and every day. With that being said, there always comes a point when the bad guys decide, 'Hey! Lets do something new!' Well just like them, we need to try something new now and again too. And that's why I'm here to present to you the newest toy from Dash Industries. If you ever find a reason to fire one of these, I can personally guarantee that the bad guys will be running home to their mommies." She motioned to a large crossbow-like device behind the group. A large red sphere rested at the rear end where the long band had been pulled back. On the side , the words "Dash Industries" had been printed in white paint on the ball.

Rainbow Dash pressed a button on the remote she held in her hoof, causing the slingshot to launch the ball into the air. All eyes followed the speeding object. As it gradually flew farther away, it gained speed and grew smaller in the distance. Suddenly, less than a quarter of a mile from its target, the ball exploded and broke up into several smaller pieces, each leaving a tail of vibrantly colored smoke behind it. The balls fell in a line, each different color aligning perfectly to give the illusion of a rainbow flowing to the ground. As the pieces neared their target, Rainbow pulled the pair of sunglasses she had been wearing on the top of her head back down over her eyes. She turned to look at her audience once more.

"Mares and Gentlecolts, I present to you a little something I like to call..." she paused, waiting two seconds before deciding her timing was right, "the Rainboomer!"

Just as she said this, the rainbow behind her crashed into the distant ground with a deafening explosion. A massive rainbow-colored ring of light formed at the epicenter of the shock wave and began to spread out in different directions. The ring sped towards the group while Rainbow Dash braced herself. The force of the shock waves knocked several stallions off their hooves and to the ground. Struggling to get back up, they all saw Rainbow's proud, smiling form standing over them.

* * *

A small chest in front of her opened up, releasing a cloud of cool air and dry ice. She reached in and pulled out a bottle of cider, pouring herself a mug. "If you order right now, I'll throw in one of these absolutely free!" she joked, sipping the cider.

A convoy of motorized carriages was lined up in front of her, ready to make the several-mile-long trek back to the base. She stepped inside and situated herself between two young stallions dressed in the standard golden armor. She would meet Spitfire that night before they both left to go back to Las Pegasus on the plane. An electric guitar began playing over the speakers in the carriage as they started to move.


	3. Revelations and Realizations

Rainbow Dash suddenly felt herself pulled back from the depths of unconsciousness. She took in a deep breath through her mouth, filling her lungs with cold damp air before exhaling it through her mouth. There was a steady beeping coming from somewhere to her left. Slowly, she began to take deep and steady breaths, hoping that she would be able to stay awake this time. Closing her mouth after taking another gulp of air, she felt a foreign object resting along the bottom of her mouth. Moving her tongue along her teeth, Rainbow Dash discovered that the object was long and tubular; it was almost like a straw but much more flexible, trailing all the way out of her mouth.

Her eyelids slowly started to creak open, allowing her to scan her surroundings. As her vision began to clear, she tried to make out the various shapes around the room. To her left was a heart monitor that appeared to be a decade old, and to her right was a small box of some kind continuously emitting a soft electrical hum. The room was completely dark, save the faint light of a dimming candle next to her.

Bringing her hooves up to her face, Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes and pushed away stray strands of her mane from her vision. She brought her hooves up to the tube in her mouth and began to tug at it. While she was pulling, she suddenly felt something shift inside of her stomach. Rainbow froze in horror. With shaking hooves, she tugged at the clear tubing once more, and again she felt the movement on the inside of her stomach. Her eyes widened as she felt the tube slide along the bottom of her jaw. She continued to pull it out of her mouth, feeling it slide upwards through her body and back out of her mouth.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" She cried out as the neverending snake of a tube slid out of her.

With one last pull she finally managed to remove the tube from her innards. Gagging, she threw it across the room and looked away, shivering at the thought of what had just happened. As she lay curled up on what she presumed to be a bed, he heard the sound of moving hooves from where she had just thrown the tubing.

"Wh-who's there?" she asked in a shaking voice.

The sound of the hooves stopped as she spoke. Rainbow Dash held her breath in fear at whomever or whatever had put her here. Across the room, Rainbow could make out the dark silhouette of a pony leaning against the wall. She then heard a soft, yet heavily accented, voice from the shadows.

"Leaving that bed is most unwise. Resting 'til you can stand is what I would advise."

"Who- who are you?" Rainbow called out into the shadows.

"Fear not, young pony, for I am a friend," came its soft-spoken reply. "One who has spared you a most grisly end..."

The shadow began to cross the room towards her. The dark mass stepped into the dim light of the candle next to her. Rainbow watched as the figure revealed herself; her body was covered in stripes and her mane pulled up, almost like a mohawk. In her incapacitated state of mind, it took a moment for her to realize that the strange looking creature before her was a zebra .

"You're... you're a zebra..." she said weakly.

"But of course I am, and I'm not alone. Many of us call these great fields of sand our home," the zebra said.

"Where... where am I?" Rainbow Dash asked, noticing how dry the inside of her mouth was.

As if she could read her mind, the zebra walked to a small table at the foot of the bed and grabbed a pitcher in her mouth. She reached under the table and sifted through the contents with a hoof. A moment later, she pulled out a glass, which she then filled with water from the pitcher in her mouth. She gave the water to Rainbow Dash, who merely stared at it, skeptical as to what might be in the glass other than water.

"I give you my word there is just water in this glass. I cannot imagine-" she began.

"Where. Are. We?" Rainbow cut in through clenched teeth.

"Ah yes. You wish to know the whereabouts of this place. I see you are quite unaware from the look on your face. We're in the depths of the planet where the sun cannot shine. We are both trapped in the bottom of a mine."

Rainbow put a hoof to her forehead, taking the glass of water against her better judgement. Sipping it, she looked down into the cup. The water inside was clear for the most part, but she was still wary of what it might contain. As she continued to sip it, she noticed that her chest was covered in bandages that had been wrapped around her body. What really caught her attention, however, was a pair of wires leading into her chest and under the bandages, one red and the other green.

Using her hoof to pull one up to her face, she noted that the end not leading under her bandages led somewhere off of the bed. Rainbow Dash's eyes followed the wire trail away from her body until they ultimately led her to the small humming box next to her.

Her heart stopped for a moment and the world around her seemed to freeze for several seconds. She looked back down and stared at the bandages covering her chest. Suddenly, she reached her hoof up and began pulling at the white fabric, ripping and tearing it away from her. Layer after layer of the cloth were peeled away until finally her bare chest was exposed. Rainbow's eyes widened in shock at the ghastly scene on her body. There, on her chest, was a series of cuts and slashes scattered all over; in the center was a circular metal device of some kind where both wires ended.

For a moment, Rainbow Dash sat there on the bed, her eyes locked on the device embedded into her. She couldn't say a word as she touched the metal ring with a hoof. Once the tip of her hoof made contact with it, her breath quickened and deepened.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Her scream echoed throughout the walls of the cave and carried on even after she had run out of breath.

* * *

It had taken half an hour for Rainbow Dash to recover from her panic-induced frenzy. She had screamed for nearly ten minutes, barely stopping to even take a breath; it had take. another twenty minutes for her to stop thrashing her body.

After what felt like hours, she merely sat on the mattress and looked at the floor below. A small fire burned in the center of the room, which was completely silent save the crackling of the wood. The zebra was standing over a cauldron she had set above the flames, a bubbling liquid inside.

"What... what the hay is this thing?" Rainbow asked in a low, monotone voice.

The zebra turned to look at her before turning back to her cauldron. "They brought you to me in a ghastly state. I got right to work, no time to wait. There was no guarantee you would come out well, as your chest was filled with the ruby's shrapnel," she answered. "I had little supplies with which to make do, but I worked best I could in order to save you. The result was not pleasant, but it would have become worse. But I fear my blessing of life may turn out to be a curse.

"You see, I removed all the shards, I was doing quite well, until the whole process went straight to Hell. In the midst of the loosely-named 'operation,' your heart stopped beating, a severe complication. Your breathing grew shallow, your vitals grew worse, I feared it was the time that you ride in a hearse. I-"

"Wait, wait," Rainbow interjected. "Are you telling me that... my heart stopped, and... I was dead?"

The zebra began to stir the boiling liquid in front of her with a large wooden spoon. She slowly and silently nodded her head, not glancing up from the cauldron.

"No matter what I did, your heart would not pump. I tried all I could but could not give it a jump. Then a radical idea dawned on me, and I got positive results through basic energy. It was a dangerous and radical, I was taking a chance, but I had come so very far that I had to advance. I needed a means to keep you alive, for your body and soul to once again thrive. So I devised a potion, of my own personal brew, and enchanted a dragon's scale, which I inserted into you. In a way, that scale now runs your heart. It is not a permanent solution, but a good place to start."

"Okay, so let me get this straight: My heart stopped... and you found out, I don't want to know how, that as long as there was some kind of energy powering it, it would still beat. So you put a spell on a dragon scale, and now this... thing, is like a battery for my heart?" Rainbow held up a wire with a hoof and motioned her head in the direction of the little humming box.

"Think of it as a simple cup, designed to hold magic until it is all used up. It holds the potion I brewed to enchant the scale, but if you are not attent, it is prone to fail. For the potion to keep working it must be refilled, and if you fail to do so you will likely be killed."

Rainbow Dash simply sat there, looking bewilderedly at her strange striped companion. Shock and disbelief were plastered onto her face, her eyes unblinking. She stayed like this for a moment before her eyes lit up and she gave a sarcastic smile.

"Yeah... right," she chuckled. "A dragon's scale is inside me and if it comes out, my heart is gonna stop. Sure... I believe you. Now really, where are we?"

She began fiddling around with the device. She gave the wires a small tug and pulled them away from the box, causing the humming noise to cease. Immediately she felt her chest grow ice cold, like everything inside of her had stopped and shut down in the blink of an eye. Every single noise seemed to echo itself five times over as she slowly slid down from the bed to the floor.

Through the echoes, she could barely make out what she thought to be the zebra's fading voice shouting at her. She struggled to catch the smallest breath; her head began throbbing and her eyes strained. The world slowly started to blur and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

* * *

In the span of 24 hours Rainbow Dash had been knocked out and pulled back into the world several times. Had it not been for the zebra reconnecting the two wires back to the metal circle buried in her chest, she would have gone out for the fourth time in just that one day. Had she not been there, it was very likely that Rainbow would never have woken up again. It was the second time the zebra had saved her life.

She lay flat on her back in a daze, looking straight up at the ceiling of the cave. At first, she was unable to believe it (or perhaps simply didn't want to), but her heart was actually being powered by what was essentially a battery. The idea of her entire life being in the balance of whether or not she was able to keep a little machine inside of her powered was still fresh in her mind. It was awful; everything she had ever worked for in her life, her inventions, her friends, her father's final creations and the Dash family legacy would end right there with her. It wasn't just shocking; it was terrifying. It was too much...

Rainbow Dash felt a lump in her throat growing in size. It wasn't long before she felt the first tear slide down her face and an even shorter time until she completely broke down. She cried. For the first time in years, Rainbow Dash, the mare famous for being so headstrong and never backing down from anything, was crying. She dug her face into the flat pillow she was resting her head upon and continued until her eyes were dry of all liquids.

She felt a hoof come to a rest on her back before sliding down. Rainbow Dash looked up from the pillow and saw the zebra standing next to her bed, stroking her wings as a mother would.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked, her nose still a bit runny.

The zebra merely sat there silently for a moment, thinking of what to say next. "In my old village we always liked to say, 'What doesn't kill you now will make you stronger another day.' I cannot imagine that you have ever felt worse, but maybe one day you'll be blessed through this curse," she said in the best maternal voice she could muster.

"And how wou-" Rainbow's question was cut off by a pounding on the other side of the cave.

The zebra suddenly pulled her hoof away from Rainbow's wings and stood up straight looking with unblinking eyes in the direction from where the pounding had come. Rainbow Dash pulled her head up and looked in the direction the zebra was staring. Across the room there stood what she assumed was a metal wall of some sort; with the candle being the only source of light, it was quite hard to tell. As the pounding began again, it was accompanied by a low growling and what sounded like... a barking?

"For both of our sake, I beg of you," she heard the zebra whisper above her, "lay there still and remain calm as I do."

Mere seconds after she said this, there was the sound of sliding metal on the other side of the door. A moment later, the door swung open and three dog-like creatures stepped in. Each was holding what looked to be a gun in their hooves- well, paws. What Rainbow Dash thought most strange about their weapons was the fact that each one looked strikingly similar to the saddle-mounted ones given to soldiers in the Equestrian Military; the only difference was that the heavy plastic straps which would normally hold them in place on a pony's saddlebag had been removed. The dog-looking creatures made their way into the room and approached the zebra.

Rainbow's eyes never moved from the one leading the other two in as he stepped up to her striped companion. After looking into the zebra's eyes for several seconds, the dog began to let out a series of soft growls and woofs. It took her a moment, but Rainbow realized that the dog wasn't just making noises; it was talking to her. Her suspicions were confirmed when the zebra turned her head over to her.

"He says they have spared you for a task that they wish done. He wishes you to build a weapon greater than any gun. The one you introduced to the world today, that rains death from the sky into the bloody foray," she said. "He says he wants you to build what you called the Rainboomer."

Rainbow's eyes shot open and she jumped up to her hooves.

"No," she said firmly, a look of anger in her eyes. "No way!"

The zebra merely looked at her with a somber expression in her eyes before letting out her own set of awkward-sounding growls and grunts to the dog. The creature in front of them turned to look at Rainbow Dash. They each glared at each other before the dog turned and barked orders to his cohorts, who stepped forward and grabbed Rainbow by her forehooves and began to pull her away. They threw a sack over her head once again.

Rainbow's vision was hindered almost to the point of blindness by the sack but her other senses were still hard at work, doing their best to make sure she knew what was going on. As she was dragged and pulled through the cave, she made sure to count each individual step and the number of turns she had taken. The small box was tucked snugly under her right wing as she was pushed along. The sack was suddenly yanked off her head, forcing her to squint her darkness-accustomed eyes at the sunlight's abrupt appearance.

Looking around, Rainbow Dash could see dozens of the dog-like creatures, all doing something or other. She could have cared less what they were doing; what she did care about, however, was the disturbing fact that everywhere she turned, there was a weapon of some kind. But they weren't just basic guns or makeshift explosives like one would expect.

They were HER weapons.

"Dash Industries" was plastered on the side of each mechanism and every box of shells or bullets. There were Mini Bomb Rubies, Modified Saddle-Mounted Guns, Dragon Breathers... you name it and it was there.

She was suddenly thrown to the ground and felt two of the dogs pinning her down. The barrels of multiple guns were pointed directly at her face. She struggled against them but could do little to fight the combined mass of the dogs. One of the guns clicked above her as the barrel was pressed up against the side of her head. The dogs above her all snarled and growled as her face was buried into the sandy earth underneath. The box became dislodged from its place under her wing and fell to the rocky surface of the ground.

Rainbow watched helplessly as one of the dogs lifted it up using its paws. It held the small object and examined it, as if trying to understand its purpose and workings. After a moment, the dog sniffed the wires and came to the conclusion that whatever this strange device was, it was important. Using its free paw, the disgusting creature began to tug at one of the wires leading into the metal container that held the vital Dragon's Scale.

"No! Wait!" cried Rainbow in a panic. "Okay! Okay! I'll do it! I'll do it!" As if understanding what she had said, a toothy grin grew across the dog's face as it dropped the wire.

Rainbow Dash's heart sank as she realized that she was in a lose-lose situation. Betray Equestria by giving these monsters a weapon that would ruin the lives of others or die a slow and painful death. A death that would wipe away any chances of her finding out how and why these creatures had her inventions at their disposal. There had to be a way to weasel out of this one; the only question was how.


	4. Playing the Cards

The fire in front of her crackled softly as the flames danced back and forth quickly and smoothly. Rainbow Dash merely stared at the embers floating up into the air slowly and gracefully before fading away. In less than a day, her entire world had been flipped upside down and changed forever. Not only did she have a battery for a heart, but she was being held prisoner by some grotesque dog-looking things who wanted her to build a weapon that would kill who knows how many innocent ponies and other dog... things.

From what she had seen outside, the mine she was being held captive in was nestled between two very generic-looking mountains. Even if Spitfire was putting everything she could into finding her, the chances of them locating the exact same mountains were very slim at best. And the chances that they would actually look between them and find the tiny entrance were even slimmer.

Why had she been so impatient? Why couldn't she have waited to fly with Spitfire back to the camp together? If she hadn't been so eager to get home and too lazy to fly, she probably wouldn't be here.

Rainbow's thoughts were cut off when she felt a blanket of some sort being draped over her back. Looking up, she found the zebra looking back down at her with a sympathetic smile. She weakly grinned back before using her mouth to pull the quilt around her so that her entire body was bundled inside. She gve a slight shiver; despite the fire and the generally hot weather outside, the cave was still freezing cold.

Her zebra companion walked around and sat on the opposite side of the flames, looking across at her. Aside from the crackling noise coming from the fire, the room was silent.

Rainbow's eyes were fixated on the ground, partially in defeat, but more with shame at the fact that she ended up here by her own accord. But above all other reasons, she was ashamed that somehow, someway, these creatures had gotten their paws on her inventions and were using them against her and who knew who else.

"I am sure that someone so smart as you, will find a way to escape this place very soon."

Rainbow glanced at her for a moment before looking back down. "What does it even matter anyways? We're stuck here until I give them what they want. And if I don't, they're going to tear this thing out of me! And even if I DO build them their own Rainboomer, what am I supposed to do? Just walk out? Just walk back to Equestria and pretend none of this happened? Just go back to getting rich off of building things that kill?" She tapped the metallic casing on her chest with a sigh as she spoke. "That Grass Marks kid was right... I DO live off of death!"

"Now, now. All will end well, of that I am sure. As long as your faith remains strong and your heart stays pure."

"Speaking of my heart, how long is this thing supposed to last before it runs out of juice?" she asked as she tapped the box next to her with a hoof.

"The potion should last 'til eleven tonight. Provided of course that my math is right."

Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her head with her free hoof, trying to think of what to do with the cards she had been dealt. She wouldn't actually build a working Rainboomer for these freaks in a million years, but they DID say that they would give her whatever she needed in order to build the launcher and the Boomer itself. And, as far as she knew, they had no clue what it really took to build one or how long. If she played her cards right, she would be able to convince them to provide her with enough tools and supplies; then she might be able to find a way to build something that would get them out of here. It was just like in Las Pegasus back home... All she needed to do was play the cards. And if she knew how to use those cards, then she would win the game.

A grin slowly crept on to Rainbow's face as an idea began to form in her head.

* * *

The dogs were all gathered in front of her and the zebra. She stood tall, keeping the blanket from earlier wrapped around her.

"Okay. If you want me to build you... guys this thing, I'm going to need a lot of stuff," she began.

Rainbow turned to the zebra who relayed the message to the dogs. The one she assumed to be the leader simply nodded its head in response.

For the next half hour, she listed all the different supplies she would need in order to make them their "Boomer." No matter the request, they provided it without question and without hesitation. It occurred to her that, despite their knowledge of how to tinker with her inventions and make them work, these mangy creatures weren't very smart. At least, they weren't smart enough to realize that she was requesting more tools than were necessary even to build the Rainboomer three times over...

* * *

After the dogs had carried in all the equipment she wanted, the small room was filled with dozens of lights and more tools than she would ever need for her supposed task. Big, red Dazzler Fireworks, once the pinnacle of the Equestrian Military's armory, were lined up against the wall opposite of them. Copper wiring rested on the table she had designated as her "workshop." Boxes filled with disarmed Mini Bomb Rubies were stacked high in the corner.

Rainbow smiled at the sight. Under different circumstances, she would have loved to be surrounded by so many toys with free reign to do whatever she pleased. But she wasn't under different circumstances, and she had a problem that needed dealing with. A big problem.

Rainbow Dash picked up a screwdriver in her mouth and walked over to one of the Dazzler Fireworks leaning against the wall. She pulled it from its resting place and brought the tip of the nose to her ear, lightly tapping it with a hoof. A moment later, she smiled as if the firework had somehow just told her a secret path to freedom. Using her screwdriver, she wiggled the tip in between the nose and fuselage of the Dazzler.

The Dazzler Fireworks were the biggest and baddest explosives Equestria had to offer before she introduced the world to the Rainboomer this morning. They were meant to both distract and eliminate the enemy in one swift stroke. The fuse on the back end would be lit and, twenty seconds later, the firework would speed away on a straight path in whichever direction it was pointed. Generating a high-pitched frequency, the firework would soar through the sky, leaving a brightly-colored rainbow trail in its wake. With the enemy focused on the noise and the multi-colored trail of light, they wouldn't see the firework itself until it was far too late. The resulting explosion rarely left any structure standing and, more often than not, any living being unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast radius was wiped from the plane of existence. It was effective, it was fast, and she was more than confident it would be able to blast the metal door off... at the cost of collapsing the entire mine and killing her in the process.

But that wasn't the reason she was picking it apart; there was something very specific she was looking for. There was a small pop, and Rainbow Dash knew that she had loosened the nose enough to pull it off entirely. Using her hooves, she tugged the pointed tip from the cylindrical body and turned it upside down, looking inside.

"Aha!" she said, using a wing to reach inside. "There you are!"

When she retracted her wing there was a small, fiery red glowing gem nestled snugly between two feathers. She picked up a nearby metal cup in her hoof and dropped the gem inside before placing it on her back and balancing it there. Without a word, Rainbow Dash trotted across the room and began to do the same with a second Dazzler. The zebra looked over her shoulder as she pried the tip off of the second one. Again, the nose came off with a slight "pop" and she reached inside, her wing reemerging with another gem. This time, the gem was glowing a dull and calm shade of green.

"If you do not mind that I may ask, what is the point of this entire task?" came the Zebra's voice from behind.

Rainbow Dash dropped the gem into the cup with the other glowing crystal. She didn't say a word as she pulled another Dazzler close to her and wedged the screwdriver between the nose and body again.

There were twelve Dazzler Fireworks in the room, three of which she had just taken apart. That gave her three gems, and she needed at least 7 more to make her idea work. If she was able to keep up her lucky streak of not dropping or damaging them, then she might be able to use extra, which would be a tremendous help. Rainbow Dash sighed and went to work on the other Dazzlers.

With the screwdriver in her mouth, she began to answer the zebra's question, the tool between her jaws hindering her ability to enunciate: "Ith 'ou reely mutht know, I nee' to pull ou' each o' theeth gemth fro' the Dathlerth 'ireworkth. Onth we do that, we can thart workin' on tha nethxt thtep."

She glanced over to the zebra, who merely looked confused. She rolled her eyes briefly before spitting the tool back out into her hoof.

"I said, we need to get each of the glowing gems from inside these things and put 'em in here," she motioned in the direction of the cup on her back. "Once we're done with that, we can get to work on melting them."

The Zebra blinked before responding. "You are suggesting we melt the gems? I do not understand why we should liquefy them."

"Don't worry," Rainbow said as she pulled her wing out of another Dazzler nose with an indigo-glowing gem tucked between two feathers. "I know what I'm doing."

She turned to the zebra with a reassuring smile. The gem made a small "clink" as it was dropped in the cup. Rainbow turned and picked up another screwdriver in her mouth, offering it to the striped mare.

For the next half hour, the pair picked apart the Dazzlers one by one, carefully removing the glowing gems from within.

By the end of the process, they had pulled open all of the Dazzlers, dropping only two of the glowing gems in the process.

Rainbow explained that the magic inside the crystals was very sensitive to impact, which was why it was placed at the front end of a Dazzler Firework. Once it came in contact with its target, the magic held within the gem was released; when combined with the concentrated gunpowder inside the tube, the result would be the Firework's famously colorful explosion. However, if the gems themselves were dropped, then the magic they contained would be released. With no gunpowder to ignite, the magic would simply fade away.

Rainbow picked up both of the dropped crystals, no longer glowing, from the floor and tossed them into the crackling fire.

Ten gems, she thought to herself. Not bad...

The metal cup glowed from the gems inside. As she carried the cup over to the table, she asked the zebra if there was any kind of fireproof material they would be able to use to melt its contents. The zebra trotted off and returned with a smaller version of the cauldron she had been using earlier grasped between her teeth.

"Perfect!" Rainbow exclaimed.

The zebra trotted over and placed the mini-cauldron on the table in front of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow set the cup down next to the black container, which had two small metal handles protruding from its sides, almost like a smaller form of the grip on a cider mug. One by one, she plucked the gems from the cup and dropped them into the cauldron. One by one they clinked into place at the bottom, illuminating the otherwise dark interior of the black pot.

Now that they had a melting pot for the gems, they were faced with the issue of how to safely place it in and remove it from the fire. Unsurprisingly, the zebra had a pair of tongs, not unlike the ones used to reposition wood in a fire place. Rainbow Dash used her hooves to pick up the tongs and carefully slipped them into the handles of the cauldron before lifting it from the table. She carried it over to the fire and set it down in the middle of the flames.

"Okay," she said, breathing a sigh of relief as she watched the flames surround the small pot. "We got that done..."

Rainbow continued to stare at the flames for a moment before turning to face the zebra.

"By the way, I never learned your name..." she said, flashing a grin.

"I've been called many names throughout the years, but my true identity remains. The name bestowed upon me at birth is Zecora, one I will never change," came Zecora's soft reply as she smiled back meekly.

"Well, I don't think I have to tell you my name, but... I'm Rainbow Dash. Nice to meet you, Zecora," Rainbow replied as she extended her hoof to her zebra friend, who shook it.

Rainbow made her way back to flat mattress, and sat down. It was going to be several hours before the gems were fully melted. In the meantime, she rested her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. For the first time in 43 hours, Rainbow fell asleep on her own, and not from being knocked out.

* * *

Rainbow Dash was standing in the middle of a sandy landscape. The sun beat down on her from above and there didn't seem to be anybody around for miles. She could see a plume of sand rising into the air above a nearby dune. A moment later, a convoy of several motorized carriages began to roll down from the top of the rise. What struck her as odd, though, was that there was no sound coming from anywhere. Nothing at all. Not even the sounds that should have been coming from the motors on the back of the carriages. It was strange. It wasn't normal... it was unsettling. It was scary. The carriages continued to silently crawl along the flat landscape. That was all they were doing. Just chugging along...

Suddenly, it occurred to Rainbow to turn her gaze upwards to the rocky mountain that she didn't quite remember being there a moment ago. Along the jagged surface of the cliffside, she was barely able to pick out several grayish shapes moving amongst the boulders and rocks. She looked back down at the four carriages pushing on through the desert, the cloud of sand following their every move.

Wait a minute. What were those things doing... Oh Celestia no...

Rainbow Dash tried to take off, flying at top speed in an attempt to warn the ponies driving the carriages that they were about to be attacked. However, as she flapped her wings she found that, no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't able to lift herself from the ground. She beat her wings furiously as she watched the convoy of carriages move forward, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen. Rainbow Dash was pounding her wings faster than even she thought was possible, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't take off.

"HEYYYY!" she screamed at the top of her lungs in the direction of the convoy. "LOOK OUUUUUUT!"

It was too late. From the mountainside came a small flash of light and, before she could register in her head what the flash had been, a trail of smoke sped toward the first carriage. The world suddenly flashed all around her at the moment the missile made contact with the vehicle, forcing Rainbow to squeeze her eyes shut. When she opened them, she could see that the carriage was now a twisted wreckage of fire and molten iron. The air all around her was suddenly filled with a horrible wailing noise. It took Rainbow Dash a moment to realize that the awful, agonized screams were from the ponies that had been inside the vehicle burning in front of her.

There was another flash as a second trail of smoke sped toward the second cart. As the carriage caught fire, the sounds of the wailing and screaming from moments ago were amplified two times over. Rainbow pulled her front hooves up to her ears only to find that, even through her hooves, the screaming was just as loud; if anything, it became louder than before.

Rainbow Dash could only watch in horror while the final two carriages met the same awful fate as the the first. The wailing grew more ear-splittingly painful and horrible to listen to. They weren't just screaming in pain, they were screaming because they all knew they would never see their families again. They were screaming because their lives had been cut short before they even had a chance to really live them out and make their marks on the world. They were screaming because they had never had the chance to say "goodbye" to their loved ones. Never had the chance to tell the pony they had a crush on how much they truly loved them. Just like that, their lives were over. Their screams of agony grew louder and more awful by the second.

Just then, there was another flash from the mountainside. There was no loud noise. There was no trail of smoke. There didn't seem to be anything at all until Rainbow Dash felt something crash into her. She was knocked off her hooves by the impact and slammed into the ground below. Her body was unable to move save her head, which shifted on its own to the side, bringing into view a fire red ruby embedded in the sand.

"No..." she whispered upon realizing she was looking directly at a Mini Bomb Ruby. "Oh Celestia please no..."

The ruby began to turn itself over in the sand. In place of where the "Dash Industries" logo would normally be there instead was one awful word, written in a dark, red liquid that trickled down the surface.

"MURDERER" the word seemed to scream out at her.

The ruby then exploded, sending a flash of unimaginable heat through her body. She screamed and writhed in agony, both in pain and guilt. Rainbow's scream continued to fill the air...

* * *

Her eyes shot open with a start. Her body was covered in a cold sweat and her hooves were shaking uncontrollably. Rainbow Dash looked all around her, somewhat paranoid of what might happen next. It took her a moment before she began to realize that the horror she had just experienced was merely a nightmare. A nightmare based on true events, but a nightmare nonetheless.

There was a sick feeling stemming from her gut that was growing by the second. A moment later, Rainbow Dash jumped off the cot, ran over to a corner, and vomited.

As her stomach contracted, her mind was racing with thoughts of guilt and disgust. All her life, she had been told that her family built weapons to defend Equestria from anyone and anything that wanted to bring about harm. But now she knew that those very same creations of hers were being used AGAINST the ones she had meant them to protect.

It made her sick to her stomach. At least fifteen ponies had died just the other day as a direct result of the things she had built falling into the wrong hooves... well, paws in this case. But these weren't just any old things that one would be able to pick up at the store. In fact, the only possible way that anybody would be able to get ahold of them was through a direct shipment from her company. It had always been that way. And if these... things had gotten them into their possession, then there was only one possible explanation: Somebody in her company was dealing them under the table. And if she didn't somehow find a way to get out of here and return home, then more ponies would die and more lives would be ruined.

Rainbow Dash got up to her hooves, picking up a nearby rag and using it to wipe her mouth. A determined look was set on her face as she tossed the rag to the ground.

One way or another, she was going to get out of here. And she was going to make everything right...

* * *

Spitfire gazed up at the sky from the raised platform she stood on. It had been several hours since word of what happened to the convoy carrying Rainbow Dash reached her. Ever since then, she had been constantly sending out teams of pegasi to search the surrounding mountains for any sign that she might still be alive.

Spitfire learned against the railing of the covered platform and watched the sun slowly descend beyond the horizon.

There was a voice behind her. She didn't need to look to know that it was the lieutenant in charge of the base's flying teams.

"Ma'am," she heard him say. "The fourth team just got back..."

"And?" she said, still staring at the setting sun

"They, um, didn't find anything..."

Without turning to face him, she merely sighed, half in frustration and half in disappointment.

"Tell the fifth team to gear up," she instructed him, still not turning around.

"Ma'am, with all due respect," the lieutenant began, "it's nearly nighttime. And with no way for the pegasi to see Miss Dash in the dar-"

The colt stopped as Spitfire turned to face him. Even through her sunglasses, her cold stare alone was enough to make him stop in his tracks. The mare stepped away from the rail and walked up to him, slowly pulling her shades from her face. Each hoof clicking against the wooden floor sounded like a gunshot.

"I said..." she hissed, "go... tell... the fifth team... to get ready."

"Y-yes, ma'am," stuttered the colt. "Ri-right away, ma'am."

He quickly began to climb down the stairs back to the ground below. Spitfire turned back to the railing, tucking her shades away in the collar of the white button-down shirt underneath her heavily decorated overcoat. Propping her front hooves over the railing again, she couldn't help but feel her eyes water up just a bit. Reaching into the breast pocket of her blue coat, she pulled out a worn photograph and stared at it.

In the picture was Rainbow Dash and herself sitting next to one another in the booth of a restaurant as fillies. There was icing covering both of their cheeks and an utterly annihilated cake on the table in front of them where the words "Happy Birthday, Spitfire" had once been written in red icing. The writing on the cake had long since been eaten away, but Spitfire remembered her sixth birthday as if it were only a week ago.

When they were young, Rainbow Dash was the only friend she ever had. Everyone else always avoided her because of her father's military background, but not Rainbow. She wasn't afraid of anything or anyone. From their kindergarten class all the way through their high school graduation, Rainbow had always been there for her no matter what. When her first coltfriend dumped her for another, prettier mare at the Cloudsdale Prom, Rainbow Dash was the one who had dumped a bucket of milk on the both of them from the ceiling, making them the laughingstocks of the school. It was Rainbow Dash who had always told her that she was meant to be more than just another pegasus mare in Equestria. It was Rainbow who was standing next to her in front of all of Equestria when the Wonderbolts were officially recognized as the most elite fliers in the Equestrian Military.

As she stood there lost in memory, she hadn't realized how much her eyes were watering up until a tear fell from her cheek and onto the photo below. Spitfire quickly wiped away another one before placing the photo back into her pocket.

"Darn it, Dashie... why couldn't you just wait ten more minutes? Why did you have to jump into those carriages? Why... why did it have to be you?" she whispered to herself before burying her face into her hooves, silently sobbing to herself.


	5. Celestia Help You Both

"Careful," she said. "Careful, this is our only shot at this..."

Rainbow Dash watched as Zecora carefully carried the miniature cauldron with the tongs in her mouth, holding her breath in anticipation. She ran over to the table that she had designated as her "workshop" and placed a clay brick on the wooden surface. Earlier, she had cut the clay in half and carved a diamond-shaped mold in the center of both pieces. She had then put them back together to create a hollow point in the center of the brick. After that, she drilled a funnel-shaped hole from the top side of the brick that led all the way down into the cavity inside.

Zecora walked up to the table and held the small cauldron over the brick. Rainbow Dash brought her face up to the space that separated the bottom of the pot from the hole in the clay.

"Okay" she said between breaths "Do it..."

She watched while Zecora slowly tipped the cauldron over and poured its red hot contents into the funnel. There was a soft hissing noise as the liquefied gems settled into place inside the clay brick. As soon as the final droplets fell out of the cauldron and into the hole, Rainbow Dash quickly put a small piece of clay over the opening, sealing the gems inside.

"Okay," she sighed. "That's done..."

The zebra set the tongs and cauldron down next to her and trotted next to Rainbow Dash, who was staring at the wall weighing her options and assessing her situation. There was a large whiteboard behind her and a green marker in her mouth. Little notes and hastily drawn sketches that Rainbow had thrown together littered the otherwise clean surface.

"Okay, so here's what we know," she said while looking over the board. "We know that they check in on us every hour or so. We know that the mine entrance is smack in the middle of a pair of mountains right here," she said, pointing to a small black dot between two crudely drawn mountains on the board. "And we know that they only open the tiny little hatch on the door when they're giving us food and water. So as far as we know, they're not watching us directly most of the time, meaning that as long as we stay subtle, we can get out of here."

Zecora sat in front of her friend, watching as the cyan pegasus paced back and forth, still looking at what she had drawn out on the board.

"All of this, we have already been through, but what do you propose that we might do?" she asked, a hint of fatigue in her voice.

Rainbow Dash suddenly stopped in her tracks. She turned to look at the zebra with widened eyes.

"Zecora... say that again..." whispered Rainbow, almost distantly.

"All of this we have been through…"

"No, no, after that!"

"What do you propose that we do?"

"Do... Do... Do... That's it! That's it!" Rainbow cried out in excitement.

While she certainly seemed to be overjoyed, Zecora was at a loss as to what might have caused such a reaction from her. "Pray tell, Rainbow Dash, what exactly is 'it'? Or should I be worried that your mind has finally split?"

"Daring Do! That's it!"

Rainbow ran over to the duffel bag she had brought with her from Las Pegasus. It was in the carriage during the attack and the dog-things had dumped it in here with her, but not after emptying it of anything they thought she would be able to use in an attempt to escape.

She set it down on the bed and pulled open the zipper using her mouth, shuffling through its contents one item at a time. There was a toothbrush, a small tube of toothpaste, a brush for her mane, a tiny bottle of shampoo, and... There it was!

She pulled a thick, hardcover book out from the bag and laid it out in front of her on the bed. She opened it and flipped through the pages as quickly as she could. She kept this up until she found what she was searching for and stopped. She sat there, staring at the page she had opened to. Zecora trotted up behind her and peeked over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of what it was that she had found.

At the top of the page were two words that signaled the end of one chapter and the start of a new one. In large print and underlined were the words "My Escape," stylized to look as if they had been written in ink. Zecora turned to Rainbow Dash, whose face was quickly forming into a broad smile.

"This is it, Zecora," she whispered, a sense of eagerness in her voice. "This is how we're gonna get out of here..."

Rainbow tapped the middle of the page opposite the one announcing the new chapter. "In this part, Daring Do escaped from the Timberwolves by taking four pieces of hard wood and shaping them to fit her body. Then she just marched her way out of the woods. When the wolves tried to bite her, their wooden teeth almost fell out of their mouths. It was just like... a suit of armor..." her voice trailed off.

Rainbow Dash ran off to the area where the stripped Dazzlers lay on the ground in a pile, leaving the book behind on the bed. She picked one up with a hoof and examined it closely, staring at its metallic surface. She looked back over at the various tools around the room before returning her eyes to the Dazzler. Her smile grew even broader than before...

* * *

For several hours, Zecora had been napping on cot next to Rainbow's. After Rainbow had her brainstorm, she had galloped to the other side of the cave with a pencil and pad, leaving her to sleep for the first time in hours. The clock on the wall had read one in the morning when she first put her head on the pillow and-

"Zecora! Zecora! Wake up!" Rainbow Dash's unmistakable shouts pulled her back from the depths of slumber.

With a groan, she managed to pull open one eye and was faced with what she could barely manage to identify as a sheet of paper. Upon opening both of her eyes, she found that a heavily detailed... thing had been drawn on its surface and that Rainbow held at least six more papers in her hooves. What struck her as strange was that whatever her pegasus friend had drawn covered only a small portion of the entire sheet. Zecora pulled her head up and blinked before taking another look at the sheet, trying to register what she was seeing. She looked up to Rainbow with a confused and sleepy look.

"What is this strange machine you have drawn," she yawned, "and why can it not wait until dawn?"

"Because this, Zecora, is how we're going to get out of this hole!"

Zecora rubbed her eye with a hoof, yawning again and struggling to comprehend the drawing before her.

She watched as Rainbow pulled a small lamp up to the side of the bed. "Here, this should help." Rainbow flicked the light on, causing Zecora to squint her eyes immediately in protest. After a bit, her eyes adjusted to the brightness and she could fully open them once more. What she saw caused her jaw to drop in awe.

With the powerful light bleeding through the papers, she could see that there was a detailed drawing of a different machine on each of them. When Rainbow had turned on the light, they all came together to make up what may just have been the most incredible drawing Zecora had ever laid her eyes upon. It was a massive suit of armor, made up entirely of scrap metal from the Dazzler Fireworks. There was a box-shaped apparatus on the back of the armor that seemed to connect to the legs. Under the wings was what appeared to be an engine of sorts.

As if hearing the question before Zecora even had a chance to ask it, Rainbow Dash explained what it was for. "This thing it going to weigh a ton, right? And it's going to have to move fast so we can get out and away right? That thing in the back is like a motor; it'll make it a million times easier to move around. But that's not what we need to focus on now..." Rainbow pulled the drawings away and tucked them under her wing.

After making sure that the design was as safely hidden as possible, she trotted over to her "workshop table" and picked up a mallet with a hoof. Rainbow pulled the clay brick up to her and with one swift motion, she brought the heavy mallet down on the brick, smashing the top to smithereens. She pulled the mallet up into the air again and hit the cube once more. Bits and pieces of hardened clay flew everywhere as Rainbow Dash hacked away at the brick. With a final swing of the mallet, a brilliant white light began to stem from inside. The light became bigger and brighter as she continued to chip more and more away.

Zecora walked up next to her and stared in amazement at what she was seeing. The zebra put her front hooves on the table, remaining entranced by the white diamond embedded in the clay like a filly gazing into a snow globe on Hearth's Warming Eve.

"Never before have I beheld such a sight," she whispered, "but what is this gem that glows so bright?"

Rainbow Dash stood up straight and wiped her brow with a hoof before dropping the hammer to the ground, where it landed with a soft "thump" in the sand.

"It's called a Crystal Charger. It takes any kind of energy and amplifies it ten times over before sustaining it permanently. My dad built the first one back home after the Crystal War, but he scrapped the idea shortly after. Mostly because it used up a lot of gems and was normally big and impractical. But this is a smaller version... And you said that potion of yours can generate energy, right? Well, this should make it so that we won't need this anymore," Rainbow Dash glanced over at the black box next to her. "Think you might be able to pull it off?"

Zecora was unable to stop gawking at the Crystal even as she answered, "Give me about an hour or two, I may have a potion that will do..."

* * *

It had been a good ninety minutes by the time Zecora had finished brewing her potion. During that time, Rainbow Dash continued to look over her design for the suit of armor that she hoped would get them out of the mine.

Zecora busied herself with the potion, dropping in the occasional ingredient and even sticking her nose up to the bubbling liquid and inhaling its fumes. The larger cauldron from earlier rested neatly over the crackling flames as she continued to add more things into the potion. When she felt satisfied with the final product, she picked up a ladle and dipped it into the green bubbly concoction, filling it up to its maximum capacity

"Now that the potion had been brewed, what do you wish for me to do?" asked the zebra, the ladle making her voice sound a bit odd.

"Pour it on the Crystal," Rainbow said as she stood up from the bed.

Zecora paused for a moment, a look of confusion on her face.

"You want me to pour this onto your gem? Wh-"

"Believe me, I know what I'm doing. Just pour it onto that bad boy and the Crystal will do the rest."

Hesitantly, Zecora approached the Crystal on the table and held the utensil over it. It took her a moment before she was able to pull her attention from the glowing, white diamond and to the task at hoof. Carefully, she began to pour the ladle's contents out and onto the Crystal's shining surface; the potion immediately began to sizzle upon making contact. As the sizzling continued, it almost seemed like the Crystal was absorbing the liquid directly into its core. Even after it had swallowed Zecora's brew, the sizzling continued for a brief moment until at last it began to subside and stop entirely.

Rainbow Dash walked up to the table. With her bare hoof, she reached over and pulled the diamond right out of the clay brick. The light in the room seemed to shift itself in unison with the Crystal.

"There we go," she whispered. "It's done. All we need to do now is get it inside me."

Rainbow turned to her friend. "What do you say, Stripes? Think you can pull it off?"

Zecora scratched the back of her head with a hoof. "To put in this device is no simple task, so I want you to be sure that this is what you ask. But if you are confident that this will succeed, I suppose that it may just be safe to proceed. Though I do have to warn you, Rainbow Dash, a procedure like this may go wrong in a flash..."

"I don't think anything can go more wrong than it already has, Zecora. This is my only chance... This is my only chance to get back into the world... My only chance to make things right... Will you help me?"

There was dead silence in the air as Rainbow Dash waited for her response.

"Yes... yes I will."

* * *

The dog and its two companions silently made their way through the caves, their paws sinking into the muddy floor underneath. Upon their arrival at the metal door blocking the room where Rainbow Dash was held, the lead dog raised its paw to the air, signaling for its subordinates to stop where they were. Both of them sat on their haunches and stopped moving.

The lead dog slowly approached the door and used its paw to flip up the small metal flap, much like a mail slot one would find on a house door, and take a peek inside. It scanned the room with its eyes, searching for the pegasus and zebra. At the other end of the cave, it could barely make out the zebra standing over a table with what almost looked like a pony-shaped mass in front of her. That was odd…

As far as it knew, only the zebra and Rainbow Dash were in there. As the dog glanced again, though, it realized that the pony-shaped thing WAS Rainbow Dash. The dog peeked back in through the slot where it saw the pony shape move before pulling itself up into a sitting position. The dog almost had to squint its eyes as she did this, as its eyes were met by a bright light coming from Rainbow's chest. Rainbow Dash looked down at her chest and tapped the light before looking to the zebra thing and shaking her hoof.

Whatever it was, it didn't seem to be that big of a deal. The dog rolled its eyes and let go of the metal flap, causing it to drop back down to the door with a small "clank."

As it walked away, it dropped to its behind and licked the area between its legs, searching for any mine-bugs that might have crawled up its leg. Surely if that disgusting, mangy, striped zebra had anything to do with it, it couldn't possibly be important. It pulled its tongue away from its legs and shook its head, allowing droplets of spittle and dirt to fly off in different directions. Ponies are such disgusting creatures, the dog thought to itself...

* * *

Rainbow Dash carefully held the two metallic plates near one another and brought the bright blue flame of the welder up to them with her mouth, using her hooves to keep them in place. She held the welding tool like a pencil and carefully guided the flaming tip down between the metal slabs, slowly bonding them together into a singular sheet of thick metal. As soon as she was sure that they weren't going to fall apart, Rainbow used a hoof to turn off the welder, wiping her brow with the other. Over on the bed, Zecora was busy tinkering with a Dragon Breather tank and hooking up its nozzle to a rubber tube.

All day long she had been hard at work, piecing together what could very well be her one and only chance to escape back home to find who was responsible for these monsters getting her creations. Grass Marks' statement about reaping treasures from death had left a huge impression. If her idea somehow worked and she got out, then she was ready to do anything and everything to fix her past sins and turn herself around. And if her machine broke down ten seconds after turning it on, well... at least no one could say she didn't try. All she could do was hope that she didn't screw anything up.

Rainbow Dash shook her head to pull her mind back to the present. "No," she told herself, turning the welder back on. "You won't screw up. You never have and you sure as hay won't start now."

Just then, there was a loud pounding from the metal door on the opposite side of the cave. Rainbow jumped and quickly cut off the flame. She turned to Zecora, who was staring wide-eyed at the door. Within seconds, they both heard the sound of dozens of locks being undone. The pair quickly sprang into action and hid anything that would draw suspicion before the door swung open, revealing a group of the dog things on the other side. Again, Rainbow glanced at Zecora, who had taken a bowing position. She quickly dismissed the notion of following suit and stood tall as the dogs filed in one by one. She was not about to bow down to these mutts, even if they DID have her life in their paws. Out from the crowd walked a single dog with a strange glowing red ruby hanging by a gold chain from its neck. It walked right up to Rainbow and looked her in the eyes as it stood in front of her while the rest kept their place at the door.

"Welcome," it said in a guttural voice.

Rainbow Dash was almost shocked that this strange dog creature could actually speak to her on its own. Until now, she didn't think they could even understand what she was saying, let alone talk to her. The dog approached her and stared at the Crystal Charger in her chest before it continued to talk in its growling voice.

"Many centuries ago, the most powerful weapon a soldier could wish for was the common spear. The weapon won battles that would change the course of history; it was the weapon that caused the rise and fall of entire empires. Time has passed and things have changed. Ideals have changed, war has changed... and weapons have changed. The spear has been replaced by your famous saddle guns. Where the bow and arrow struck fear into the hearts of soldiers marching through the forests, your mini bomb rubies now wipe out entire armies and the woods they hide in. Your legacy has changed the planet, Rainbow Dash; your inventions have put Equestria on the top of the world. Now, whoever has the latest Dash Industries weapons at their disposal quickly comes to rule these desert lands. I cannot describe how overjoyed I was when I learned you had agreed to help us in our cause. When your Rainboomer is complete, the time will come for the Diamond Dogs to rise to power... and it will all be thanks to your contribution."

Rainbow could hear the sadism and malevolence dripping from its voice. Just the thought of what they could (and would) do with a Rainboomer sent a chill down her spine. The dog's eyes scanned the room around them before they settled on the papers behind her. It pushed her out of the way and walked up to them, picking one up and looking at it.

"A bit more complex than one would expect for a catapult, yes?"

"A lot more goes into it than you would think, especially with the dump you want me to work in…" Rainbow retorted, darting her eyes to Zecora, who was biting her lip.

She heard the dog let out a growling noise. It took a moment for her to realize that it was speaking. Zecora let out a very awkward-sounding growling noise of her own. The two were obviously talking to one another, that much was clear, but it bothered Rainbow that she wasn't able to understand what either of them were saying. From the tone of their voices, they seemed to be arguing over something or at least disagreeing. The dog's voice grew more intense, angry and even a bit threatening as Zecora's grew fearful.

Suddenly, the dog grabbed Zecora and threw her to the ground. Rainbow's eyes widened at the sight of her friend lying motionless on the floor. The dog walked over and used its paw to flip Zecora onto her back, stepping on her throat. The zebra began to gasp for breath as her windpipe was suddenly closed by its paw. It began to bark at her, snarling while she continued to struggle for even a gasp of air. Zecora could barely cough out what vaguely sounded like a response as her face began to turn red from lack of oxygen.

By this point, Rainbow had had enough. With a furious look on her face, Rainbow Dash stepped forward, ready to do whatever it took to save her friend. As soon as she moved, all the dogs standing in the doorway suddenly jumped into action and pointed their guns at her. Rainbow grit her teeth in frustration. If anything happened to her, not only would Zecora die right then and there but she would never be able to get home to find out how these... animals got ahold of her own inventions. Growling, Rainbow stepped down, watching as the dog lifted its paw from Zecora's throat; as soon as her windpipe was free, the zebra coughed and gasped for air on the floor. Rainbow Dash looked up to see the dog walking back toward the metal door.

"You two have twenty four hours," she heard it hiss, "to finish the Rainboomer. And if you don't…"

The dog turned around to look at her.

"Then Celestia help you both."

The group of dogs turned around in synch with their leader as it walked out, slamming the metal door behind them.

Rainbow Dash trotted up to her friend and put a hoof on her back. "You alright?" she asked.

The zebra looked up at her and continued to cough, simply nodding in response. Rainbow reached down and helped her to her hooves.

"Good. Now let's get going. We only have twenty four hours to bust out of here."

* * *

Rainbow slammed the heavy mallet down onto the sheet of metal in front of her with her hoof.

_Wham! Wham! Wham!_

The sound of the hammer colliding with hard metal echoed throughout the cave. Sweat dripped down from her forehead to the floor below. Her legs ached and her hoof begged her to stop. With each impact from the mallet, the metal slowly but surely took a more defined shape until at last Rainbow felt it was just right and picked it up with a pair of tongs. She carried the metal over to a cauldron filled with the coolest water they had and dunked it into the water, causing a cloud of steam to rise up from the edges.

Zecora sat in front of a table, tinkering with a Dragon Breather and carefully attaching it to a steel half pipe. She jumped a little bit when the table shook from the impact of a heavy object on the other side. She looked up and came face to face with a heavy steel mask with eye holes and a mouthpiece that presumably allowed access to air. It had a very menacing look to it. Rainbow Dash looked back at her with a wide grin and wiped her hooves with a piece of cloth.

At long last, they were ready.


	6. Escape

"Okay, let's go over it again," whispered Rainbow Dash, pointing to a sheet of paper in front of them.

Lines scratched out in pencil crisscrossed its surface, completely indecipherable to anyone without knowing their purpose. Rainbow tapped one end of the paper with her hoof, where two crudely drawn stick figures were scribbled.

"This is us," she said, sliding her hoof along the paper towards the opposite end, "and this is the exit we're going for."

"This all seems to be a well thought out plan," Zecora interrupted, "but there is one thing I do not yet understand."

Rainbow didn't look up from the paper. "Yeah? What's that, Stripes?"

"What did you intend to represent with these? Are they some form of two-dimensional ponies?" Zecora asked, pointing at the two stick figures..

Rainbow sighed, rolling her eyes. "I didn't feel like going into huge detail, so let's just say for the sake of situation that, yeah, those are us. Anyways, once we get out of this room, we take about twenty steps down and then there should be a left turn somewhere... here."

Rainbow picked up a pencil in her mouth and scratched an "X" over the spot she referred to.

"Thirty five steps down this way, then there's going to be a right turn here," she said, drawing another "X" on the paper. "Then we take one more left turn here... And after that, it's a straight shot to the surface and WE. ARE. OUTTA HERE!"

Rainbow's voice cracked, as it always did when she was excited.

Zecora could hardly believe what she was hearing. Rainbow Dash had been dragged in, bloodied, bruised, and burned; her heart at a total halt; she was technically dead, and, yet, she was miraculously able to survive the ordeal. Not only that, but she had single-hoofedly managed to create an incredible device to keep her heart pumping out of nothing but a box of scrap, and thought of an even more amazing (albeit far-fetched) plan to escape. All on her own, Rainbow Dash had pulled herself from the edge of death and given herself an entirely new reason to live. It was incredible. Never in her life had Zecora seen such a strong mare who-

"You ready?" Rainbow's voice cut into Zecora's thoughts, something she had long become used to..

"For what?"

"To get out of here, of course! I don't know about you, Zecora, but after being trapped in a mine for... however long we've been here, eating only... this..."

Rainbow motioned to the platter of what could loosely be termed "food" on the cot behind them.

"…I'm more than ready to get out of here and get home."

Rainbow trotted over to her "workshop" where she found the metal mask lying exactly where she left it. She picked it up and looked into its empty eyes while the air around her slowly quieted down. Rainbow Dash sighed as she continued to look at the helmet.

"We might die today, Zecora. If we die... then we died fighting. We died trying. And we died showing these creeps that you can't keep a couple of mares like us down. So... Are you ready?"

Zecora took a deep breath before replying, "Ready as I shall ever be."

"Then let's roll"

The zebra picked up one of the heavy metal plates Rainbow had forged and carefully began placing it on her back.

* * *

The dog carried the platter in his mouth down the hall and through the mines. On the platter was a small mound of a green and yellowish colored… form of sustenance. Supposedly, it was a mixture of hay, oats and grass, something ponies apparently ate all the time, but, as far as he knew, neither hay nor grass were so slimy and... Did the food just_move_? He shook his head a bit, shaking the platter and sending some of the slop flying off the platter and to the ground, where he was sure he could hear the slimy substance splat. He was eager to slide the platter under the door and to the pony and zebra, who were actually disgusting enough to eat this mess. The sooner he did that, the sooner he would be able to escape the horrible odor that came from it.

Eventually, he approached the door, where he could hear the sound of drilling and hammering coming from the other side. The dog opened the small opening at the bottom of the door and pushed the platter and its revolting contents under it, as was routine. Normally, the mares would drop whatever they were doing in order to scramble for their food like the pathetic creatures they were; it was a sound that the dog would often wait to listen for. Partly because it was to make sure that neither had died, but mostly because he found a sick sense of enjoyment in hearing them act so pitiful for just one bite.. But this time, the sound never came. The pair just continued drilling and playing with their metal. That was strange... normally, he would be able to hear them nearly pushing each other out of the way just to grab one bite. But not this time. This time, they just kept working on their... whatever it was

...

It couldn't hurt to look inside at what they were doing, just to be safe, he decided. The dog used his paw to lift up the metal flap in the middle of the door and took a peek into the room. There, on the opposite end of the room, was the zebra standing in front of a giant mass of metal where Rainbow Dash's head was poking out from the top, facing the wall opposite from where he stood. Wait, why would Rainbow Dash's head be sticking out of a pile of metal? As the flames danced along the interior of the room, he could barely make out two pairs of legs made of metal sticking out from the bottom of the strange cluster. That didn't look like a Rainboomer. That didn't look like a Rainboomer at all…

In a panic, the dog began to bark and howl in alarm. If the two of them were up to something, then it couldn't be anything good. With his paws, the dog began pulling at all of the latches that kept the door sealed. He pulled a knife from the sheath on his front paw using his mouth and unbolted the final lock before pushing the heavy metal door open. The zebra instantly turned her head over to the dog standing in the doorway, while Rainbow seemed to struggle to even turn her head halfway she would normally be able to..The dog was about to charge at them, knife ready to put an end to whatever they were doing, when he heard a small beeping noise coming from the ground directly in front of him. Rising up from the sand came a small, circular piece of metal with a blinking red light on its top and several blue and red wires all linking to a central green circuit chip. It stood on four little metal legs and began to crawl all by itself toward him, the beeping noise progressively becoming faster with each step it took. The strange little device continued to make its way between his front paws. Curiously, the dog lowered his head down to sniff at it when the beeping quickened until there was no discernable interval between-

There came one final beep, louder and deeper than the others. In the blink of an eye, the entire cave was engulfed in a blinding explosion that sent the dog flying backwards and into the corridor behind it.

* * *

Rainbow Dash snickered to herself as she heard the distinctive explosion. Spidermines; a classic from the Crystal War. Even today, ponies (and apparently dogs) could never see the explosion coming until it was way too late. She wished she could have seen the dog's face right before it went off.

"Did it work?" she asked as Zecora continued to piece together the suit of heavy armor on her body, drilling bits and pieces here and there in a struggle to finish the job before more dogs arrived.

Zecora looked over Rainbow's shoulder and saw the Diamond Dog lying on its back, slammed into the sandy ground behind it.

"I stand corrected; it worked far better than I expected," she said.

"What did I tell you?" said a very confident Rainbow Dash. "There's no problem a Spidermine can't fix in ten seconds flat. Even one made from a pile of junk."

Suddenly, the sound of several snarling and barking dogs echoed through the mine shafts, confirming that others had heard the noise from the Spidermine.

"Zecora," Rainbow said, a hint of urgency in her voice, "time to hurry up..."

Zecora was fumbling with the multicolored wires with her hooves, desperately trying to connect wires from the heavy engine on Rainbow's back to the rest of the suit. She rubbed one open wire to another, waiting for the telltale sparks of flowing electricity. After what felt like an eternity, several small flashes of bright light jumped between the red and green cords. Zecora smiled in satisfaction and reached over for a piece of electrical tape, which she then used to fasten the two wires together.

"It is done," she said excitedly.

"That's peachy, Stripes. Now start it up!" said Rainbow.

Zecora searched for a moment before finding her target: A basic pull string, not unlike what one would see on a lawnmower stemming from the side of the engine-like machine. She lifted her head and clamped down on the end of the string with her mouth, giving it a tug, before letting go. The string reeled back in and the engine growled a bit but quickly died down. She reached up again and pulled the string a second time, causing the motor to growl again before dying down once more. The barking and howling only grew louder as the engine grew quieter. In desperation, Zecora jumped onto Rainbow's back, gripping the string tightly between her jaws, and gave a mighty tug, thrusting her weight backwards. With a small snap, the string broke right in two, sending Zecora flying onto her back in the sand. Seconds later, the engine began sputtering to life.

"Perfect! Now just hold tight, Stripes. It needs a few seconds to power up the rest of the suit before we can get going."

The dogs were getting closer and closer by the second. Precious time was quickly running out. Zecora's mind raced as she struggled to think of a way to stall the dogs before they burst through the doorway and ended both their lives. Her eyes frantically darted around the room, and quickly settled on the dog's fallen knife that lay in the sand. Without thinking, the zebra ran over and picked the blade up between her teeth, darting out and into the dark tunnels ahead

"Wait! Zecora! Get back here!" she heard Rainbow Dash screaming behind her.

Ignoring her, Zecora raced down the corridor with the knife and a determined look on her face. Even if she didn't survive, she was going to ensure that Rainbow would. Just down the mineshaft, she saw the shapes of several dogs charging right at her, holding spears and one wearing what looked like a Saddle Gun on its back. Zecora tilted her head back and, with one swift flick of her neck, sent the knife flying at the dog bearing the gun. The sharp blade dug itself into the dog's chest. With a gasp, he fell to the ground on his side, the gun on his back misfiring from the impact, sending bullets flying in all directions and causing the pack to flee back down from where they came in a panic.

Zecora continued galloping after the dogs, yanking the knife from the fallen Dog's corpse and giving chase. Farther down, she could see them turning a corner off to the right. Pressing forward in her pursuit, Zecora ran on, determined to do whatever it took to allow Rainbow Dash more time. As she turned the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks, staring wide-eyed at the horrible sight in front of her: Several dozen dogs, all holding spears, large knives, and at least seven with Saddle Guns on their backs all looked right back at her. The ones she had been chasing snickered to themselves at their newfound backup. Outnumbered and disadvantaged, Zecora threw her knife forward one final time and sprinted as fast as she could back into the caves, not knowing or caring if the knife had hit any of the dogs. Up ahead, she could make out the fallen dog that lay on the ground and just beyond it was the doorway leading into the chamber (and relative safety) that she and Rainbow Dash had called home for a very long time. Zecora sped up and galloped faster than she had ever gone in her life, hoping that the heavy door would be able to keep the dogs at bay, at least for a little bit. Adrenaline ran through her veins as she continued her mad dash to what she hoped was a safe zone. She dove and landed on the sandy floor of the chamber, immediately jumping back up and pushing the door closed. As soon as she felt it click shut, Zecora sat down, leaning against the door, out of breath and throat dry as a result of her short crusade. Looking up, she saw Rainbow begin taking her first few steps inside the armor and picking up the metal helmet, placing it on her head.

"Open the door, Zecora," the Pegasus said, her voice echoing from inside her fearsome looking mask.

* * *

Rainbow took another step forward, the engine on her back sputtering and coughing. Before her, Zecora sat wide-eyed and unmoving. Rainbow Dash took another step.

"Zecora, open the door!"

The zebra shook herself out of her trance and managed to piece together a reply.

"But they wait to kill us on the other side! I do not think that-"

"Zecora, trust me! Just do it and get behind me!"

Zecora squeezed her eyes shut and turned around to pull at the door, jumping back as soon as it swung open. On the other side, Rainbow made out the shapes of dozens of Dogs rushing toward them, their weapons ready to either gun her down or tear right into her. She took in a deep breath.

"Let's do this," she whispered to herself.

For a moment, several Dogs froze in place, surprised by this unexpected new target; they quickly pushed their confusion aside and continued their attack, snarling as they ran at her.

Rainbow Dash braced herself as they drew closer. The first dog to reach her was a skinny little thing carrying a long spear aimed at her chest, obviously intending to run the blade right through her. Rainbow Dash swung her hoof forward, hitting him with what could be described as an uppercut and sent him soaring through the air and towards the rest of the group. His body knocked down several of those standing in front, who slammed into those behind them and in turn, pushed them backwards.

"Sorry!" she shouted, "you were in my way!"

The dogs carrying the twisted Saddle Guns opened fire while Rainbow began pressing forward. The entire cavern lit up in a display of flashing light and filled with the deafening noise of gunfire. The bullets all hit their mark, but none of them were able to even scratch the thick metal. Seeing that their weapons were proving to be useless, most of the Dogs twisted their head and gave the strap a sharp tug with their mouths, letting the guns fall from their backs. The tables had turned and the dogs now ran from the advancing metal monster, the impenetrable shell of which protected it from even their best weapons.

Underneath her helmet, Rainbow Dash smiled as she watched them run away in fear. So far, the suit was proving to be just as effective as she imagined, if not more. None of them could even make her flinch, let alone harm her. All she needed to do now was follow the plan and soon they would be home free.

"That's right!" she yelled after them. "Run! Run, you mangy mutts!"

And run they did, pushing and scrambling over one another in their mad dash to escape. Some tried to flank her with their spears, hoping that one of them would be lucky and find a gap somewhere in the armor that would put an end to her rampage.

None of them did. None of their thick blades even left a dent before they were sent flying backwards.

"Oh yeah! I could do this ALL day!" she shouted, the cockiness prevalent in her vocal tones.

The armor clanked and crashed against itself as she moved along. Dogs continued running from her down the mine. All but one. The very same dog who had nearly choked Zecora to death stood unmoving, and directly in her path. In his paws, he held a thick, tube like object. As she got closer, Rainbow Dash could make out the shape of a Gem Launcher, another Dash Co. product. She watched as he dropped a glowing red ruby into the barrel and shut it tight before lifting it up and taking aim. Seconds later, the ruby was sent flying toward her, leaving a red trail of light in its wake.

Rainbow didn't even flinch when the gem exploded just inches away from her face and merely pressed onward. The Dog looked horrified and his body visibly tensed up. Even as she grew closer and closer, he didn't move. Soon, Rainbow was within a leg's reach of him. She extended one hoof and brought him up close to her.

"That..." she whispered in a menacing tone, amplified by the metallic echo that her helmet gave her voice, pulling him even closer, "Was a REALLY bad idea..."

Rainbow lifted him up and tossed him over her shoulder like a rag doll. She heard his body hit the rocky wall and slide down to the sand below.

Continuing down, she made a left turn and at long last found herself looking at the bright light of the outside world just ahead. Zecora walked up next to her, also staring down the path.

"Ready to get the hay out of here?" she asked, turning to her friend.

Zecora smiled and nodded, not taking her eyes off the exit.

"Then let's roll!"

Rainbow began leading the way to glorious freedom with Zecora following from a safe distance. The motor on her back sputtered and spat with each step she took as it kept her metal-encased legs moving smoothly. Just a few more minutes, and they would be out of this nightmare...

* * *

_Crash... Boom... Bang…_

The sound of the approaching metal beast's stomping shook the ground underpaw, striking terror into all of them. Most of the Diamond Dogs who ran inside the mine hadn't returned, but those who did talked of a huge monster made of invincible metal that struck down dogs with one swipe of its mighty metal paws. Whether Rainbow Dash was still alive or not wasn't a concern to them. All that mattered was that they destroy this monster and find out what it was.

The ground shook more and more as the creature came closer. All of them lined up in front of the mine entrance with any weapons they were able to grab. Most had put a Saddle Gun on their back while the more brave (or perhaps stupid) ones stood directly in front of the mine shaft carrying spears and other bladed weapons, poised to attack.

Just then, the metal giant crashed its way out of the mine and stood in the entrance. Its hollow and soulless eyes stared each of them down, no doubt plotting their demise.

From the back, one dog let out a howl and opened fire with its Saddle Gun; the rest soon followed suit. None of the heavy metal projectiles from their Saddle Guns had any sort of effect on her, just as she expected. Rainbow Dash couldn't stop herself from smiling underneath her mask upon seeing the looks on their faces when they realized that none of them had even left a mark.

The sound of gunfire slowly began to die down before stopping altogether, the air falling dead silent save for a gust of wind. Rainbow Dash brought her hoof up to her mouth and exaggerated a yawn, quite enjoying herself by now. She pretended to just notice that she had survived a bullet storm unscathed.

"Oh- oh you're done?" she said, taunting them. "Cool! Now it's my turn!"

Rainbow lifted her metal-encased wings, revealing the nozzles of two Dragon Breathers, both of which were connected to a separate tank of fuel on the motor she wore on her back. A pair of searing jets of fire erupted from the open end of both flamethrowers, setting anything unlucky enough to be caught in front of them ablaze. In a desperate attempt to escape a fiery death, the Diamond Dogs instantly scattered in all directions. As Rainbow began to make her way down from the mine shaft, she continued to spread the flames all around her, making sure that anything and everything with her name on it was turned to ash. Within seconds, the entire camp was caught up in a massive inferno.

"Play with fire, and you're gonna get burned!" Rainbow called out, mockingly.

Rainbow Dash looked at what remained of the dogs' crude camp, deciding that she was satisfied with her handiwork. With just moments before the flames reached anything explosive and the mutts nowhere to be seen, Rainbow turned to Zecora, who was pressing a piece of cloth she had brought from the mine over her mouth, trying to keep the hot smoke out of her lungs.

"Ready, Stripes?" she yelled over the roaring fire.

Zecora merely nodded in response, coughing as the oxygen in the air around them quickly burned away.

Rainbow lifted her hoof and pulled a second string on her back that instantly caused her armor to split itself down the middle and fall apart, allowing her to freely take off into the air. She quickly picked up Zecora and flew straight up into the blue sky, leaving the horrible mine far behind.

Rainbow felt the wind blowing through her mane as she soared above the ground, carrying her friend with her to freedom. Behind them, she heard a thunderous explosion, the unmistakable sound of fire flirting with gas cans and dynamite.

"Aw yeah!" she shouted in victory, her voice cracking.

They were out! She could hardly believe that her crazy plan had actually worked. Now all she needed to do was find a safe place to land and-

Rainbow felt the shock wave from the explosion hit her like a freight train from behind and knock her off balance. With Zecora in her hooves, Rainbow Dash struggled to readjust her positioning, dreading the possibility of crashing into the sand below. A fall from this height would mean either serious injury or even death under normal circumstances. Holding Zecora meant that they would BOTH be injured and stranded in the middle of the desert with no food or water. The two tumbled around through the air, yelling all the way.

"No no no no!" shouted Rainbow Dash, realizing that they were, as she feared, plummeting down to Earth.

By this point, adjusting her balance was impossible. The window of opportunity had long since closed for good. The ground came closer and closer as Rainbow fell face first out of the sky.

Any experienced Pegasus pony would tell you that, in the case of an unavoidable crash from high altitudes, the best thing to do was to turn upside down. Your wings would be crushed but the soft feathers would cushion you from most of the initial impact, protecting your spine from any crippling damage. And even if you found your wings injured to the point of being unable to fly, your hooves would still be able to move, meaning that you would be able to get yourself back to safety.

As far as Rainbow knew, no Pegasus had ever fallen from this height and lived, let alone while carrying a wingless pony (in this case zebra). Nonetheless, she twisted her body around and put her belly up, facing the sky. If she was right, then there wasn't much space left between her and the ground. Since she sure as hay didn't plan to be holding Zecora when she hit the earth, she yelled to her friend over the rushing wind around them.

"I'm gonna let go of you now, Zecora. Please don't be mad at me later for this!"

With that, Rainbow Dash loosened her grip on the zebra and twisted her body off to the side.

"Have you gone-" Zecora began.

Rainbow let go and Zecora began falling on her own.

"MAAAAAD?!" she heard her scream.

With that out of the way, Rainbow twisted her body back around as fast as she could. If she could just manage to fix herself just right before she hit the ground-

Rainbow Dash felt the wind knocked out of her as she crashed into the sand. Her entire world spun around while she did her best to pull herself together. Groaning, she lifted her head and put her hoof on her forehead, taking a deep breath. That's when the pain hit her. An unbearable screaming pain on her underside began spreading like wildfire all around her body. She grit her teeth.

"Okay... okay," she said to herself, laying her head back down on the sand. "That one hurt..."

She groaned again.

"...a lot!"

"Rainbow Dash!" she heard off to her right.

She turned in the direction of the voice and saw Zecora galloping toward her. Soon enough, her friend was standing over her.

"I thought for sure you would not survive, but thankfully you are still alive," she continued.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't exactly call this a whole lot better..." Rainbow groaned.

"Perhaps you can pull yourself to a stand? Or would you rather keep yourself buried in the sand?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes and lifted a hoof up for Zecora to take. Soon, she was leaning against the zebra and the two of them began to slowly make their way through the desert.

"You know something, Stripes?" Rainbow Dash said as she limped along. "Next time, you can fly us out of there..."

The pair chuckled and pressed onward into the seemingly infinite sandy world ahead.

* * *

Spitfire flew high above the desert, two other Wonderbolts at her sides. It had been three months since she came to Saddle Arabia. Three months since she last saw her best friend. Three months of dragging five or so different teams of Wonderbolts out into the searing heat to fly around all over the desert. Just about everyone had told her at some point or another that her efforts were in vain, that all she was doing nothing but draining her energy all day, every day.

"She's gone, ma'am. I don't think there's anything to find out there," they always said.

"No," she always snapped back. "She's alive. I know she is, and we're gonna find her even if it takes until the end of time."

Thus far, she had kept her vow. Because she was the leader of the Wonderbolts, and therefore head of all military operations involving Pegasi, no one could object. The only one who had the authority to do so was Princess Luna herself, and even then, Spitfire wasn't sure if that would stop her.

"Ma'am," she heard from behind and off to the left.

Spitfire pulled her eyes away from the desert landscape long enough to look at the light purple Pegasus pony fly up next to her.

"It's been nearly 5 hours..." she continued. "With all due respect, maybe it's time to... to..."

Her voice trailed off as Spitfire turned her head to stare her right in the eyes. The look in her eyes alone, even behind her goggles, was enough to silence any protest.

"We'll head back to base... when I say we will... until then. We're sta-"

"Spitfire ma'am, what's that?" the other Pegasus on her right exclaimed.

She darted her head over and looked down where the sky blue pony was pointing.

Far below in the endless sand were two small figures slowly crawling through the desert. One seemed to be leaning on the other and limping. Even though they were at least six hundred meters below them, Spitfire was able to spot one striking feature about the limping one.

A bright, Rainbow colored mane that she recognized anywhere...

Without a word, Spitfire dove headfirst to the earth, ignoring her confused partners' shouts behind her as she flew faster and faster.

It was her! It was Rainbow!

* * *

Rainbow Dash looked up when she heard the sound of wings from above. She nearly jumped when a mare dressed in the standard Wonderbolt uniform landed in front of her. Rainbow instantly recognized her best friend before she even removed her goggles.

Both mares simply stood where they were for what felt like several minutes, before Spitfire suddenly rushed over and wrapped her hooves around Rainbow Dash, her eyes watering up.

"I knew it! I knew you were alive!" Spitfire said in between sniffles. "I just knew it!"

Rainbow Dash could feel a few tears of her own welling up in her eyes as she hugged Spitfire back.

"How did you know we were here?" she asked, a tear slowly sliding down her cheek.

"I didn't. I haven't stopped looking for you since you first disappeared."

"Spitfire... you're the best."

"I know I am…"

Rainbow turned her head to look at Zecora, who slipped her an approving smile in return. She turned her head to look back at Spitfire, only to catch a quick glimpse of her best friend leaning in toward her. Before she knew what was happening, she found herself kissing Spitfire, who still had yet to let go. Time froze and the pair looked at one another before quickly pulling apart and sitting awkwardly in the sand across from one another.

Rainbow felt a flush of red take over her face and nervously scratched the back of her head.

"Sorry... that was... that was meant for your cheek..." Spitfire said in a hushed voice, also blushing.

"Don't, uh, don't worry about it..."

They looked around to see that the two other Wonderbolts had apparently found their way over to Spitfire and were now staring at the pair with a "we know what you were doing" look on their faces. Zecora shared their expression, having not heard Spitfire say it was an accident.

It didn't take more than a second for Spitfire to return to her normal self and for the Wonderbolts to wipe the grins from their faces.

"What are you two looking at?" she barked. "Get going!"

With that, the two Pegasi grabbed hold of Zecora and began lifting her away. As soon as they were gone, Spitfire turned back to Rainbow Dash.

"Can you fly?" she asked.

"Well, not really... I'll tell you all about that later. If it makes you feel better, I probably dropped like fifteen pounds while I was gone."

"I'll believe it when I feel it."

Spitfire fluttered over to Rainbow Dash and wrapped her hooves under her friend's front legs. With a grunt, she began lifting her off the ground and soon enough they were making their way back to the Wonderbolts outpost.

"Yeah... I still don't believe it" Spitfire poked.

"Shut up, Spitfire," Rainbow said with a chuckle.

* * *

Several Diamond Dogs were pawing through the smoldering remains of their campsite, looking for anything they might be able to salvage. Over the course of two and a half hours the only things their entire search party found were pieces of the metal suit that Rainbow had used in her escape.

Rover toyed with the glowing ruby hanging from his neck as he watched the Dogs dig through the wreckage. It was his idea to allow Rainbow Dash to live in the first place, believing that she would succumb to her failing heart at some point or another. He hadn't counted on her overcoming that, much less escape.

Perhaps, he thought, allowing Rainbow Dash so many resources was not the best course of action.

Just as he was about to bark at the dogs for being slow he heard a chilling voice behind him, causing the hairs on his back to shoot up instantly.

"I see that your plan has failed," it whispered. "Just as I knew it would..."

Rover did not turn around, too terrified at what stood behind him. Instead he merely looked down at the earth underneath his paws and spoke in a meek voice.

"I did not think-"

"And that is why you are worthless," the voice cut in. "You never think."

"I thought she was going to-"

"Build your precious Rainboomer? And simply drop it at your paws? To comply wholeheartedly?"

"She resisted at first..."

The voice became harsher yet remained a whisper.

"You never questioned her sudden cooperation? You never suspected her of anything when she demanded such a large amount of supplies?"

Rover shifted his eyes up to look at the dogs sniffing through the ashes.

"No..." he said.

"Clearly you are as clumsy as you are stupid. Your weakness has cost the lives of several others."

Rover growled to himself, though not loud enough to be heard by his master.

"You are a pathetic waste o-"

"I did what I thought was best!" Rover snapped. "I made a choice. Which is more than you have EVER done for us. You make us do your dirty work, and yet you give us nothing in return! The Diamond Dogs are my family! I wanted my family to have something more for once! I had my family's best interests at heart!"

"And now nearly half of your family is dead."

"I know," Rover growled, a bit louder this time. "But I will prove to you, and to my pack, that I can do right. With or without you, I will make things better."

Rover heard the voice snarl behind him, an animalistic sound that caused him to shudder. He felt something on his shoulder and looked down to find a blue paw resting there, with four different colored glowing gems in the place one would normally find claws. A silver gem on the nearest digit began glowing even brighter than the others, causing Rover to squint his eyes.

Seconds later, Rover found himself turning and bowing down to the being before him. All protesting thoughts faded away, replaced by unending and infinite loyalty to his master. He closed his eyes and lowered his head, like the servant he was, unworthy to even look at his Master.

"I will give you one more chance, Rover. One final chance to prove yourself worthy to lead the Diamond Dogs," he heard his Master say. "If, however you fail... If you make one more mistake, one single misstep... You will not live to see the next day."

Rover took a deep breath and closed his eyes as the voice faded away like a breeze on a silent night. He opened his eyes and looked up, finding nothing but a depression in the sand where someone had been sitting moments before.

"Yes... Ahuizotl..." he whispered, staring at the spot.

He turned to look back at his pack of Diamond Dogs.

"I will not fail you again..."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

God BLESS my editor. This story would simply NOT be the same without his help!

So yes, I've gotten some messages saying that this has been a word for word transcript of Iron Man only with Rainbow Dash. Don't worry, I knew that one from the beginning, which is why the story is gonna begin going off on it's own plot. It'll still be the same basic story arc, but with some changes to make it more original.


End file.
